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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



MENTAL HEALING 




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MENTAL HEALING 



BY 



LEANDER EDMUND WHIPPLE 



FIFTH EDITION— REVISED AND ENLARGED 
WITH PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHOR 



New York 

THE METAPHYSICAL PUBLISHING CO. 

1905 



LIBRARY o1 CONGRESS 
Two Copies Received 

NOV 21 1905 

^ Copyright Entry 
/***v. XI. t9 Of 
CLASS tX XXc. No, 

/ 3 I LZ6 

CCPY 8. 



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Copyright, 1905 

BY 

The Metaphysical Publishing Co. 



All Rights Reserved 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Preface to the First Edition ix 

Preface to the Fifth Edition . xv 

I. HEALTH THE BIRTHRIGHT OF 

MANKIND, 25 

II. METAPHYSICAL HEALING: 

Its Nature and Scope, .... 43 

III. METAPHYSICS versus HYPNOTISM: 

Is Mind Cure Mesmerism? ... 65 

IV. THE POTENCY OF METAPHYSICS IN 

SURGERY : 

Does Mental Healing Claim to Replace 
Surgery? 81 

V. THE PROGRESS OF THE AGE: 

Universal Ether and Telepathy, . . 93 

VI. INTELLIGENCE AND SENSATION: 

The Office of the Senses, .... 109 

VII. MENTAL ACTION: 

The Process of Thought, .... 123 

VIII. THE PHYSICAL REFLECTION OF THOUGHT : 
Bodily Expression, 137 



IX. THE MENTAL ORIGIN OF DISEASE: 

Thought Images, 153 

X. CURATIVE INFLUENCES: 

What Is a Mental Cure? . . . . 169 

XL THE PHYSICAL EFFECTS OF ANGER: 

How Mental Action Causes Disease, . 1S5 

XII. THE INFLUENCE OF FEAR IN SICKNESS: 

Discordant Emotion and Its Results, . 197 

XIII. ILLUSTRATIVE CASES: 

Cures That Have Been Effected, . . . 213 

XIV. CURES THAT FIAVE BEEN EFFECTED 

(Cont'd) : Various Effects of Fright, . 225 

XV. MUSCULAR AND INFLAMMATORY 
CONDITIONS: 

Heart Disease, Fevers and Colds, . . 239 

XVI. THE COMMON GROUND OF HEALING 
METHODS: 

Why Do Conflicting Theories Heal? . 255 
XVII. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE MOVEMENT 271 



PREFATORY 



PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 

During the years in which the curative influence 
of mental practice has been demonstrated, there has 
developed a quiet yet earnest appreciation of the 
importance of the work. This is naturally expressed 
in a constantly increasing demand for some book 
that shall give a correct idea of what Mental Healing 
is, and what may reasonably be expected to result 
from an understanding of its principles. To meet 
this growing demand for information of a practical 
nature, the present volume has been prepared, with 
the belief that the results of experience must prove 
of value to earnest inquirers. 

In planning its scope and entering into the detail 
of explanation, it is recognized that the subject will 
be new to many readers, and that in some instances 
the established facts will run counter to accepted 
theories of life, even as the results of practice con- 
trast with the consequences of acting upon more 
familiar theories. Also, that the usages of language 
necessary for intelligible explanation of metaphysical 
principles are in a measure unfamiliar to those who 
have not made these principles a study; therefore, 



IX 



those usages can not be strictly adhered to without 
detracting from the usefulness of the book. 

The subject deals minutely with nearly every 
field of mental research, and to explain each point 
in detail would require a volume of such proportions 
that few would find it available ; indeed, it is so exten- 
sive and so absorbingly interesting that the temptation 
to become voluminous in explanation of either theory 
or practice is almost irresistible. In view of these 
considerations, and in order that the present work 
may cover the broadest field of usefulness, it becomes 
important that it should be somewhat limited in 
extent, yet of sufficient clearness to convey to those 
unfamiliar with the nomenclature not only a correct 
impression of the Ideas involved, but of their practical 
value to humanity. 

The principal aim has been to present concisely 
those ideas most important to a general understanding 
of the natural relation existing between life and 
health, together with an explanation of the laws 
which render Mental Healing possible. Another pur- 
pose has been to set forth the demonstrated facts 
of Metaphysical Healing, in such a manner that 
inquiring minds may be enabled personally to examine, 
through the experiences of those around them, some 
of the common lines of mental action in which proofs 
are obtainable that mind both causes and cures dis- 
ease. To accomplish all this successfully in one small 



XI 

volume is no simple task, and a consideration of the 
difficulties involved will insure the indulgence of the 
critical reader. 

Xo claim is made to original conception of idea 
with regard to the theory of cure by mental influ- 
ence exerted through the imaging faculty. Though 
practically new to Western thinkers, this idea, in 
some form or other, has existed for centuries in the 
Orient. It has also been demonstrated and taught 
to a moderate extent by some of those interested in 
the Mental Healing movement for the past thirty 
years ; yet its importance seems to have been under- 
rated, and it appears to have been frequently set aside 
in favor of theories offering greater allurements — 
theories which, perhaps, appeal more to the emotions 
than to the faculties of intelligence exerted through 
intellectual and scientific thought. 

The claim made for this work is, that it presents — 
though in a form necessarily limited — the results of 
experience derived from many years of constant study 
of mental influences and their physical effects, in a 
practice of wide extent, maintained among people 
of high grades of intelligence, where the action of the 
mind could be observed in all its varying phases. 
The most careful and painstaking tests have been 
made of all modes of mental action met with, and of 
their various correspondencies in the physical system. 
This studv has been conducted without bias of am 



XII 

sort, and with the one purpose always foremost: to 
extract from amidst the mass of conflicting theories 
and of confusing testimony frequently advanced, the 
fundamental truth of the Mental Healing movement — 
a truth so evident in many of its results of practice. 
This investigation has developed facts of human exist- 
ence heretofore unrecognized by modern thinkers, and 
principles of life-action not generally taught even in 
the advanced Schools of Mental Healing. 

Careful study shows that the Imaging Faculty 
of Mind is the instrument of human existence. This 
being true, it follows that only through the natural 
laws by which Mind images Ideas can any real mode 
of action in human life become established. On 
examination, this statement proves to be a Truth that 
withstands every form of honest investigation — the 
hotter the fire, the brighter and purer the metal which 
emerges from the flames. 

The writer entertains the opinion that Absolute 
Truth can safely invite any amount of careful investi- 
gation, together with the most thorough and accu- 
rate tests that can be applied through logic, reason 
and philosophical thought, or in scientific experiment 
of the most accurate description; in fact, the closer 
such investigation keeps to actual facts, the more 
staunch and immovable stands the idea under exam- 
ination, provided it be the Truth. 

So-called Truth which depends upon an effer- 



XIII 

vescing, emotional sentiment for either recognition 
or practical application, will vanish as soon as its 
effervescence has reached the natural limit of its 
simulated action; and a "Truth" which must be 
taken on the statement of others, because it will not 
bear independent investigation, has no attractions for 
any thinker capable of appropriating and bringing 
into useful development the facts of universal reality. 
Extended explanation of the various topics of each 
subject contained within this philosophy, will be 
given in separate works calculated to deal with each 
subject independently in so far as is found prac- 
ticable. It is thought, however, that the present vol- 
ume may prove valuable as an introduction to all 
lines of study of this really inexhaustible subject, 
by means of the explanation given of Mental Action 
and its natural pliysical effect, which is the key to 
many of the mysteries of human existence. 

Leanber Edmund Whipple. 
New York, April, 1893. 



PREFACE TO THE FIFTH EDITION. 

Since this book first appeared there has been a 
remarkable awakening of thought in metaphysical 
lines and especially in the direction of the healing 
power of the mind. To understand this and thereby 
gain the advantages which it affords, has become 
almost the chief aim of many who then had not even 
heard of the system of thought or the possibility 
of its power. 

Many letters have been received from deeply 
interested students and others who recognize the far- 
reaching qualities of the ideas upon which rest the facts 
of action presented in the healing theories. These 
letters show a great desire for something reliable to 
rest upon as a foundation for sound health and for 
wholeness of thought in all phases of life. 

It will perhaps seem presumptuous to claim such 
results as these for the system of thought which, in 
a meager way, this book represents. Such is its work, 
however, and extension of the ideas contained in its 
teaching invariably leads in that direction. 

Wholeness of thought, when continued, eventually 
results in soundness of bodily health and perfection 
of mental life, It finally arouses the deeper spiritual 



XV 



XVI 

activities of the intelligence and demonstrates the 
vital understanding that wholeness of being is a fact 
— living, active and always present for those who 
recognize it. With many individuals this fact has now 
become a settled conviction. 

In this advancement new possibilities are recognized 
for nearly all lines of action in human experience. 
Indeed, this is the natural result of a right compre- 
hension of the depth and scope possible to thought 
when it is based upon reality and truth. The applica- 
tion of such thought to one phase of life immediately 
shows its adaptability to other phases also. In this way 
its universality is demonstrated. The science of the 
system goes beyond mere money-getting — it reaches 
to health-building. The philosophy extends above 
theory-structure — it embraces soul-culture and uplifts 
the mind until it recognizes its own powers which have 
their root in spiritual energy. Then things which for- 
merly were impossible are accomplished at a turn of the 
hand. This system of thought, therefore, possesses 
an interest for mankind that extends beyond the scope 
of mere personal advantage, either in health or in the 
gaining of possessions — It is a character-builder; a 
developer of the understanding; a force-producer; a 
civilizer of the sense-nature and a spiritualizing 
influence to the mind. 

These results are possible in the realization that 
accompanies the understanding of this philosophy. They 



XVII 

are, as yet, only partly recognized, but the minds that 
have already comprehended the facts will further 
develop the knowledge, and in various ways will con- 
stantly aid others to recognize it also. 

This growth of comprehension contains the possi- 
bility of the evolvement of a new generation of man- 
kind, possessing greater intellect and increased power 
in all ways, because of more wisdom and clearer 
spiritual understanding. This important regeneration 
has already begun to flow in upon intellectual life. 
Let us help to swell the tide, in such ways as we 
may be able. 

The suggestions given in this book lead in the 
direction of such understanding as this, and its closer 
readers have recognized the fact. Many letters have 
been received from persons in various parts of the 
world, stating that they have just re-read the book for 
the third or fourth time, having gained new insight 
from each reading, but that now a deeper meaning is 
discovered which discloses ideas not before recognized. 
This is eminently true of all genuine metaphysical 
thought. Between all of the ideas expressed, there 
are unwritten thoughts almost without number, and the 
awakened mind will evolve them in its understanding. 

The suggestive thoughts offered here can be fully 
expressed only in more extensive works. But in their 
mere suggestiveness rests, to some, a great value ; 
because the suggestions arouse thought and develop 



XVI 

activities of the intelligence and demonstrates the 
vital understanding that wholeness of being is a fact 
— living, active and always present for those who 
recognize it. With many individuals this fact has now 
become a settled conviction. 

In this advancement new possibilities are recognized 
for nearly all lines of action in human experience. 
Indeed, this is the natural result of a right compre- 
hension of the depth and scope possible to thought 
when it is based upon reality and truth. The applica- 
tion of such thought to one phase of life immediately 
shows its adaptability to other phases also. In this way 
its universality is demonstrated. The science of the 
system goes beyond mere money-getting — it reaches 
to health-building. The philosophy extends above 
theory-structure — it embraces soul-culture and uplifts 
the mind until it recognizes its own powers which have 
their root in spiritual energy. Then things which for- 
merly were impossible are accomplished at a turn of the 
hand. This system of thought, therefore, possesses 
an interest for mankind that extends beyond the scope 
of mere personal advantage, either in health or in the 
gaining of possessions — It is a character-builder; a 
developer of the understanding; a force-producer; a 
civilizer of the sense-nature and a spiritualizing 
influence to the mind. 

These results are possible in the realization that 
accompanies the understanding of this philosophy. They 



XVII 

are, as yet, only partly recognized, but the minds that 
have already comprehended the facts will further 
develop the knowledge, and in various ways will con- 
stantly aid others to recognize it also. 

This growth of comprehension contains the possi- 
bility of the evolvement of a new generation of man- 
kind, possessing greater intellect and increased power 
in all ways, because of more wisdom and clearer 
spiritual understanding. This important regeneration 
has already begun to flow in upon intellectual life. 
Let us help to swell the tide, in such ways as we 
may be able. 

The suggestions given in this book lead in the 
direction of such understanding as this, and its closer 
readers have recognized the fact. Many letters have 
been received from persons in various parts of the 
world, stating that they have just re-read the book for 
the third or fourth time, having gained new insight 
from each reading, but that now a deeper meaning is 
discovered which discloses ideas not before recognized. 
This is eminently true of all genuine metaphysical 
thought. Between all of the ideas expressed, there 
are unwritten thoughts almost without number, and the 
awakened mind will evolve them in its understanding. 

The suggestive thoughts offered here can be fully 
expressed only in more extensive works. But in their 
mere suggestiveness rests, to some, a great value; 
because the suggestions arouse thought and develop 



XVIII 

original comprehension of ideas, which, after all, is 
the only true learning. 

When this book was first published, in 1893, the 
statements made in it were by some readers consid- 
ered to be overdrawn ; and occasionally a critic prophe- 
sied an early abandonment of its theories. These 
were its superficial readers. Others remarked that it 
would be principally a book of the future rather than 
of the present. This prediction seems to have been 
proved partly true, for the book now sells better than 
when first issued. To some, its chief field of influence 
seems to belong to a period somewhat ahead of the 
present time. This may be the case, but it is doing 
good pioneer w r ork now. It provokes thought with 
minds that have been drifting with the tide of 
accepted opinion. Vast numbers of intelligent people 
have begun to think in liberal ways and are now 
entirely ready for intelligible thought in other lines 
of advancement. This want must be supplied. 

In its earlier editions, this volume has generally 
received very fair criticism. The genuine praises 
bestowed upon it would in themselves almost fill a 
volume. Highly appreciative letters from deep-think- 
ing people are constantly being received from various 
parts of the world. 

Through reading and study, many individuals 
have developed a desire for deeper knowledge on the 
subject of mental healing than is presented in the 



XIX 

general literature. For such this book is intended, as 
a forerunner of a thoroughly systematic presentation 
of the subject of healing on scientific and philosophic 
ground., which has been prepared since this volume 
was written. 

The project of compiling a book in which the 
whole system and its procedures should be set 
forth intelligently, which project was entered upon 
immediately after the issue of the first edition of 
this volume, led to a careful elaboration of the whole 
subject. In this w r ork it w r as soon recognized, how- 
ever, that more than a single additional volume would 
be required for the purpose. The ideas involved 
in the subject are so extensive and contain so many 
beautiful propositions for thought, and their applica- 
tions exhibit such possibilities of power and useful- 
ness in life, that there is no end to the thought in 
any of the lines of action involved. The require- 
ments of an adequate practice demand thorough 
teaching ; and as the ideas are new to the average 
investigator, much careful thought and thorough 
description become necessary. 

And, again, when troubles to which people are 
subjected, in their almost hopeless struggle to live, 
without knowing how, are brought before the notice, 
recognition of the great need of a general dissemina- 
tion of such a knowledge as this system of thought 
contains, becomes an impulse to renewed efforts 



XX 

in preparing the material for the beginning of its 
work, that it may be both correct and effective. 
Difficulties, however, become trifles when we realize 
the eventual good that may come through the gen- 
eral spread of a philosophy in which rests for the 
hopeless, renewed life, and for those who have felt 
the rod, a balm for every wound. 

Every statement made in the original writing 
of this book has since been verified repeatedly in 
practice. In the present revision, therefore, no 
change of ideas seems to be demanded. Improve- 
ment of expression and extension of the general 
description appear to be what is mainly required. 
The first of these has been somewhat attempted 
in this revision, and occasional thoughts have been 
added, together with one new chapter. The main 
work of extension of the teaching, however, must 
be accomplished through the writing of additional 
volumes. 

With this end in view, several volumes have 
been prepared in a careful elucidation of the 
whole subject. These will soon be presented. The 
full work as it now stands contains a complete 
exposition of the metaphysical system of healing 
by the use of the powers of the mind. Everything 
that is actually known to be true about the genuine 
power to heal, is made plain in this extended work. 
The magnitude of this work is such that it could not 



XXI 

have been even approached in a volume of this size. 

The subject matter of the present volume and 
of those to follow has been prepared entirely from 
the basis of demonstration in the healing art — no 
undemonstrated theories having been allowed to 
bear witness. Ten years of time has been 
expended upon the writing, itself, and ten years 
had been given to constant study, teaching and 
practical healing before the writing was begun. 

The impossibility of including the full teaching 
in this book is the only apology that can be offered 
for its shortcoming in that respect. It is believed, 
however, that this will, to an appreciable extent, be 
overcome in the succeeding volumes of the work, 
which have been made very thorough and lucid. 

With renewed hopes for the further usefulness 
of this venturesome little volume, it is again sub- 
mitted to the intelligent comprehension of the public 
mind, where it is certain to receive its just deserts. 

Leander Edmund Whipple. 
New York, August, 1905. 



I. 



HEALTH THE BIRTHRIGHT OF 
MANKIND. 



MENTAL HEALING 



CHAPTER I. 
HEALTH THE BIRTHRIGHT OF MANKIND. 

To each individual of the human family, the 
possession of health for himself and for the com- 
munity in which he resides is a subject of the 
utmost importance. With thinking people the 
question soon arises how it may be secured and 
how retained. Especially is this true with those 
who desire to search into causes and their results, 
Avith a view to lessening danger or increasing safe- 
guards. Many expedients are suggested, but their 
effectiveness is often a matter of serious doubt and 
in many instances of open skepticism. Results 
frequently belie them. 

No intelligent observer will deny that at the 
present time diseases on the physical plane are 
constantly increasing both in number and variety 
of type. It is equally certain that the intensity of 
many of the recognized forms of disease, and their 
consequent menace to human life, are on the 

25 



26 MEDICINE INADEQUATE. 

increase, as is evidenced in the frequent complica- 
tion of one form of disease with another and in 
their fatality, with all classes of people. 

This multiplying of diseases is attended with 
a confusing variety of asserted remedies which 
are mostly combinations of drugs with unpro- 
nounceable names, and each apparently lauded 
higher than its predecessors. If with this increase 
of remedies there could be perceived a corresponding 
lessening of either the number or the fatality of 
diseases, there might be good reason for confidence 
in a final conquest over the dread enemy. But 
alas ! this desirable result does not appear or even 
show a sign of appearing. In numbers of instances 
the physician, having seemingly obtained control 
of one disease, witnesses the quick precipitation 
of his patient into another, perhaps more intract- 
able, under which the sufferer frequently passes 
beyond the control of all powers known to materia 
mcdica. The situation than becomes hopeless. 

The frequency of this experience forces upon 
us the supposition that, after all the research and 
experiment carried on during the thousands of 
years of the history of medical practice, there is 
still something lacking in the medical curriculum — 
something of vital importance yet undisclosed in 
that method which endeavors to account for disease 
as it appears, and to apply the effective remedy. 



POTENCY OF THE HIGHER NATURE. 27 

Medical practice fails to relieve too great a number 
of cases which are actually curable to rank as an 
exact science. A drug considered as a remedy for 
human ills, is at best a doubtful agency. 

While cringing under affliction, however, it is 
not necessary to bow to the result, presuming that 
a monster has come into existence of such power 
as to be unconquerable. Intelligent man will never 
believe this. Even in the presence of repeated fail- 
ure he still maintains the superconscious conviction 
that the enemy — be it entity or error — is conquer- 
able, and that research will yet disclose an adequate 
means of effective cure for his ailments. 

The human mind is so constituted that it can- 
not be entirely and permanently deceived. In the 
midst of the deepest delusion there is an internal 
"something'' that continues to speak of hope and 
that forces a conviction of truth which impels thought 
in the direction of salvation from the impending 
disaster. He believes that some power will save him. 

This is the inner voice of the higher nature. Its 
promptings preclude the entire yielding of either 
body or mind to fate, under any circumstances. It 
holds out the light of understanding so distinctly 
that however far one may go aside in the path of 
experiment, the conviction still remains that truth 
exists in relation to the matter and may be found. 
The materialistic medical dogma of the age 



28 THE LIVING TRUTH WITHIN. 

drags a man down almost to the depths of despair 
with regard to his own safety and that of his loved 
ones. Yet, under the action of a divine impulse to 
recognize the reality of being, the human mind 
finally turns to its own interior consciousness for 
guidance and instruction. Listening to the voice 
of the living truth within himself, which always 
acts to keep him from the brink, intelligent 
man learns that disease so-called is not a monster 
created to work his ruin and that he is not at its 
mercy; but, instead, that health is an eternal reality 
of his being — his natural birthright and heritage! 
It bespeaks the nature of the Father active within 
his own being. This gives him true faith. 

This inspiration of truth leads man to think 
independent of scholastic authority; to investigate 
beyond the rules which have been established in 
matter. Here the pure and natural activities of life 
become apparent. He then perceives that health is 
his lawful possession, by virtue of the activity of 
the real forces of his being. Having through exter- 
nal reasoning gone aside from the paths of health- 
ful existence, he may return and thus regain his 
inheritance of health native in the wholeness of 
being. Here he evolves a spiritual conception 
which, upon application to life and its various 
activities, is found to contain exactly the fruits of 
the promise ; and the proof of his conviction that 



RIGHT THINKING. 29 

disease can surely be conquered is finally reached. 

The right remedy for diseased conditions is 
found in such a mode of right thinking as shall 
re-establish wholesome activities in the entire 
economy. The first step that really leads in this 
direction is the. superconscious act of turning away 
from materiality to the inner nature. The concept 
of healing which is thus evolved, starts from the 
facts of the higher spiritual nature and is built 
wholly upon them. No sure and reliable curative 
agency is found until this most important step is 
taken, and clearly understood. 

Even the mental processes of reasoning, through 
which action is evolved, prove upon examination 
to be pure spiritual processes. They are entirely 
immaterial both in nature and application. The 
moment that a full realization of this principle takes 
place the power is found to be at hand, active for 
the permanent good of both operator and recipient. 
The beneficent power of the spiritual principle of 
this inner nature is all-persuasive and all-inclusive. 
Nothing that breathes is excluded from the healing 
influences of its wholeness and perfection. 

In none of its activities does the inner nature 
bear the slightest resemblance to matter or to mate- 
rial action. It is subject to no material rules, it 
conforms to no so-called physical laws. Yet every 
enduring physical science is obliged to yield 



30 THE EXACTNESS OF MATHEMATICS. 

obedience to the mandates of its spiritual principle 
as expressed in its wholeness of action, harmony of 
law, perfection of character, equality of judgment 
and exactitude in every proceeding. Nothing short 
of this endures in scientific understanding. It bears 
the permanent character of spiritual reality. 

In illustration of this precept, consider the per- 
fection and exactitude of Mathematics. While it 
is the basis of every physical science and must be 
reckoned with in every calculation, even the most 
material in character, yet it is wholly immaterial 
itself, its rules being simply the multiform expres- 
sion of the spiritual principle — the exact equation 
of all the parts of a grand whole. There can be no 
deviation from the wholeness of mathematical 
principle in any transaction in mathematics. In the 
light of this understanding it may be clearly seen 
that the power which shall fulfill the promise of 
complete, permanent and universal healing must 
be a spiritual power possessing unlimited energy. 

Such a power is at hand. Its discovery came 
through a process of thought made possible only 
by the exercise of spiritual faculties, and its teach- 
ing is a spiritual truth of fundamental reality, the 
activities of which are endless life. In the endless- 
ness of its life may be found the wholeness of 
health, and only through this wholeness can the 
endlessness be recognized. The operations of the 



THE SPIRITUALITY OF MIND. 31 

mind may be made to conform to the exactness of 
spiritual principle ; and when they do, all mental 
powers will be increased. In this the mind operates 
from a forceful center within the consciousness. 

The process of evolving the concept of spiritual 
understanding, in such a way that it shall bring 
health to all who come under its beneficent rays, 
is a spiritual process of reason realized through 
exercising the native forces of the mind. In it 
both the theory and the process are mental, involv- 
ing nothing material in the act. 

The curative change which takes place with 
the sufTering victim of the delusion of physi- 
cal disease, is also, from its very inception, 
a purely mental or spiritual change. The 
correspondingly changed condition of the body 
is a result brought about through the subconscious 
change that has taken place in the mind. It is a 
physical result of mental action. This shows the heal- 
ing procedure as well as the healing intention to be 
mental — a natural restoration to health. In this 
way mental healing becomes established as a fact, 
even in the midst of a degree of sense-illusion which 
makes it seem impossible. The image of a fear of 
disease is based upon materialistic thought; this 
contains the seeds of disease. The thought which 
removes the image rests upon spiritual reasoning; 
herein rests the possibility of a permanent cure. 



32 THE SIMPLICITY OF POWER. 

Spirit transcends matter in all ways, and is perma- 
nent in all its activities. Its forces are real. 

As with every important discovery, the true 
healing process is as simple as the shining of light ; 
and to one who understands rightly, the healing 
act becomes as easy as it is to see in the presence 
of light. Its operations are as much more power- 
ful and far-reaching than those of the materialistic 
theories, as the results of the simple principles in 
mechanics are more powerful than the cruder 
though frequently more complicated mechanisms. 

The part of man's being which possesses the 
power to think, reason, feel and know a principle 
of action, is more powerful in operation than any- 
thing physical ; and the human mind, acting through 
spiritual faculties, by virtue of the knowledge 
gained through evolutionary inheritance, has the 
power of dominion over every lower order of life 
or action. This fact has been known in some parts 
of the world for ages, and used with good effect. 

There always prevails with every mind, through 
all the vicissitudes of life, a full belief that health 
and happiness are the normal conditions of man- 
kind, and that disease, suffering and unhappiness, 
in whatever form they may appear, are abnormal 
and undesirable conditions, to be avoided at 
every turn. Nothing can shake this inner conviction. 

It seems to have fallen to the lot of the medical 



THE MICROBE DELUSION. 33 

student of the present "enlightened" age to recog- 
nize the appalling fact that some very diminutive 
animal, so infinitesimally minute that a thousand- 
power microscope fails to discover his corporature, 
possesses such superhuman power as readily to over- 
throw all. calculations of the combined mental and 
spiritual faculties of the human race, while it coolly 
proceeds to devour man's body and destroy his life. 
If this theory be true it might also condemn his soul, for 
aught we know, the power of one such act being 
quite consistent with the other. 

Calmly considered, however, all this will be 
seen to be impossible. The human mind, acting 
through its faculties of spiritual intelligence, is the 
greatest power in the universe of sense-life. Its 
modes of activity include every variety of action 
possible to conceive as common to a material uni- 
verse, and to the experiences of that mode of life. 
Even more than this — its powers of understanding 
are capable of grasping intelligently every prob- 
lem and of knowing every law expressed in its 
mechanism. With this degree of knowledge goes 
undeniably the necessary power to deal with and 
to conquer every seemingly adverse element or 
action ; otherwise knowledge is not power and intel- 
ligence does not help one to know even that which 
is beneath itself. 

But immature calculation, so vaeue and uncer- 



34 CONSCIOUSNESS AND LIGHT. 

tain, can have no definite power over the intelli- 
gence of man ; for this faculty, being of spiritual 
quality, is divine in nature and infinite in capa- 
bilities. All these erroneous opinions proceed from 
superficial observation and incomplete thought. 

As previously suggested, if thought be turned 
within, it immediately goes beyond material bounds, 
and certain facts of existence not apparent to the 
eye of sense at once become manifest. Within, 
at the center of consciousness, the light of intelli- 
gence is always shining, and incessantly giving 
forth brightness from the effulgence of its loving 
illumination. Its light is absolutely whole ; its 
illumination is all-pervasive; its beneficence is all- 
inclusive; its qualities are entirely free to all. It 
is the simple truth — plain, natural and accessible 
to all mankind. 

But this great boon is within, and not to be 
found by external search. In the full and clear 
understanding of its nature, enjoyed through shar- 
ing its universal purity and truth, rests that degree 
of power for which the entire world is searching. 
As this search is conducted mainly in external 
channels, the struggles to attain it are maintained 
solely in the sphere of matter. They are principally 
efforts to wrest from others that which seems to 
have become the object of envy or covetousness, 
and to gain position by overthrowing some other 



THE ILLUSION OF SEPARATENESS. 35 

person. Such efforts are entirely outside the pale 
of the true law and will never succeed. No true 
gain will ever come through action of this character, 
and no healing power, we must insist, will ever be 
found in such a superficial view of the laws of 
being. Yet the true knowledge is accessible and 
the real laws are clearly observable within the 
illumined area of consciousness of spiritual life. 
The inspiration of the spirit enables the mind 
to find means to control circumstances on its 
own ground, and through its own powers. 

In the illusion of material life every object, 
thing or supposed* being is examined through the 
darkened glass of sense. The limitation of the 
power of physical sense establishes an end to observa- 
tion ; then the being or object seems circumscribed 
and appears to be placed under limitations. This 
results in the illusion of a separateness of each 
thing, a belief which almost universally prevails in 
this life. It is the result of a failure to recognize 
the natural extension of the object or thing 
throughout the finer and more intricate parts and 
elements of its being. This, if realized, would show 
the uniting and intermingling of one with another, 
and the union of the seeming many in that entire 
whole which really exists in the harmony of the 
perfect law. That law still stands inviolate, and its 
light always sheds its beneficent rays upon those 



36 THE LAW OF UNITY. 

who turn in its direction. Truth and universal law- 
are always identical. They are unchanging realities. 

This law of unity is the foundation of all Being. 
In the intelligent comprehension and willing recog- 
nition of the wholeness of universal life there dwells 
a power of thought, which, when aroused, sweeps 
outward over the sandy wastes of material illusion 
and superstition, burying ancient landmarks and 
creating new boundaries without regard either to 
dogma or tradition. It is the mighty force of 
intelligent comprehension of reality which can meet 
with no obstruction, but before whose resistless 
tide all loose opinions are swept to the dead level 
of exact equality. Fortunate is he who secures his 
foothold on the rock- foundation of the understand- 
ing of wholeness ; to him the burying of landmarks 
and destroying of illusions will bear no serious 
import. In the intelligent comprehension of whole- 
ness, health is generated spontaneously. 

The understanding of this universal law of a 
whole and perfect life, belonging to and possessed 
by every being, leads into a thousand channels of 
conscious thought, through which innumerable 
forms of thought-action are generated for use in 
material life. In the illusions of this life of seem- 
ing separateness the various kinds and degrees of 
sickness take form. This accounts for mental 
images as causes of sickness, and that theory will 



THE WHOLENESS OF LIFE. 37 

have prominence in the succeeding chapters of 
this work. It occupies a thoroughly practical ground. 
No possible opinion of disease or danger can 
arise to which there may not be given a ready 
negative response from the basis of correct under- 
standing Of the WHOLENESS OF LIFE IN SPIRITUAL 

being. The forceful energy expressed in a spiritual 
realization of the principle involved in this idea, will 
always annihilate the powerless illusion which rests 
only upon the shifting sands of the changing 
opinion of separate life supposed to exist for those 
who are really united in the whole. The facts of 
demonstration prove the principle of their action 
by the universality and permanence of their 
results. Only truth continues always. 

The intricacy of the operations of the human 
mind makes a great variety of actions possible, 
even in the most external field, and in the midst of 
the deepest illusions. Consequently, one who 
would cope successfully with the many forms of 
erroneous thought that are involved in sickness, 
will require all the powers comprised in the multi- 
form expression of the principle with which he 
deals. He must trust the spiritual principle, but he 
must also know the natural operations of the mind. 

In the development of the science of mental 
healing different individuals have formulated many 
modes of applying thought for the purpose of guid- 



38 MENTAL HEALING. 

ing the wanderer into the paths of light, where he 
may share the benefit which is common to all. 
Some sufferers are in everyday life surrounded by 
an atmosphere of thought which has been gradually 
developed by erroneous teaching; these need the 
general application of a pure understanding of the 
principles of united life. Others, while sharing the 
divided opinions of a separate life, have formed in 
their own thinking processes special pictures of 
definite modes of injury, or sources of personal 
danger. These pictures carry the potency of 
expected harm and frequently react upon the ner- 
vous system, generating therein their own distorted 
images. This produces disturbances that do not so 
readily yield to the action of "general treatment" 
which relieved the former type of sufferer. These 
require a special application of conscious thought 
on the part of the metaphysician, who, through his 
knowledge of all the varied opinions and illusions, 
as well as the truths of human life, can fit a prin- 
ciple to the sufferer's case that will antidote his 
mental disturbance and restore the harmony of a 
perfect equilibrium. A special image may be found 

AND REMOVED, THUS PRODUCING A CURE NOT POSSIBLE 

otherwise. This is a scientific act. 

Each of these modes has innumerable rami- 
fications of thought to suit the requirements 
of various cases, and each covers an important field 



MODES OF THOUGHT. 39 

in the healing philosophy. No one of them can be 
spared from the perfect healing theory, which 
should be universal in application and result. 

The rediscovery of this beneficent power is of 
the greatest importance to suffering humanity. The 
rapid spread of the new doctrine throughout our 
land shows that its need is felt. It also shows the 
readiness of intelligent individuals to receive that 
which can be shown to possess genuine power for 
good, even though it does not agree with precon- 
ceived opinions or conform to traditional methods. 

Under the continued development of the healing 
philosophy as practiced throughout our country at 
the present time, there are many valuable modes 
of thought becoming established with regard to this 
most vital subject. If they are properly and thor- 
oughly developed they all will bring that condition of 
harmony which the "inner voice that speaks in 
silence" always prompts each member of the human 
family to believe possible of acquirement. This 
condition will be realized when each thinker shall 
know the thought of the other, as well as rightly 
comprehend his own, and when that united knowledge 
shall become spiritual understanding — the true 
Elixir of Life, for all nations. 

Such results as these are now being obtained 
through the offices of what is commonly known as 
'"Mental Healing." The theory on which the right 



40 SPIRITUAL PRINCIPLES. 

results are obtained is distinctly philosophic, and its 
character relates closely to the action of spiritual 
intelligence ; therefore it has been treated in this 
work mainly as Metaphysical Healing. Its char- 
acter includes the principles of pure metaphysics. 
Its good offices are open to all members of the 
human family. In the succeeding chapters we shall 
endeavor to understand some of these things. 



II. 

METAPHYSICAL HEALING 



CHAPTER II. 

METAPHYSICAL HEALING. 

Its Nature and Scope. 

Among the questions arising in the mind of every 
investigator of this subject, the following are perhaps 
oftenest asked, because most important to an intel- 
ligent comprehension of the scope and importance of 
the movement, as a work for the general public : 

1. What is Mental or Metaphysical Healing? 

2. In what sense is it rightly named metaphysical? 

3. What knowledge is the basis of its theory? 

4. What benefits are likely to result from a 
correct understanding of its principles? 

5. Has it any actual foundation in Science. 
Philosophy, Logic or Reason? 

G. Are the theory and working power capable of 
accurate or scientific demonstration? 

T. Will the knowledge probably be of permanent 
benefit to mankind in general? 

8. Will any harm be likely to result from the 
practice ? 

Clear and correct answers to these questions are 
of vital importance to those who wish to understand 
the manifold phases of human existence. In these 

43 



44 DIVERSIFIED THOUGHT. 

times of varying opinion, diverging views and contra- 
dictory theories, life's problem frequently seems more 
than ever difficult to understand; but, in fact, the 
increased activity of mind which is expressed in diver- 
sified thought, leads to extended research which is 
clearing up many obscure subjects and bringing to 
light hidden mines of knowledge. This frequently 
develops resources of the human mind heretofore 
unrealized. One important result is a rediscovery 
of the healing power which inheres in rightly regu- 
lated thought-action, and which is herein presented 
under the head of Metaphysical Healing. 

Metaphysical Healing is a method of establish- 
ing health, through an understanding of the funda- 
mental principles of Being or universal Life and the 
working laws of its activities. It is commonly known 
as Mental Healing, and under various theories more 
or less perfect in construction is popularly spoken of 
as Mind Cure. The Public does not immediately 
recognize its deeper phases or powers for action. 

The various schools of Mental Healing are based 
upon practically the same fundamental principles. 
They differ in theory, chiefly because the principles 
being universal in scope, and therefore infinite in 
extent and variety, are beyond full comprehension in 
finite thought — hence they are recognized in various 
degrees of understanding. All cannot think alike at 
first. Honest investigators will finally agree. 



DEFINITIONS. 45 

The character of the Principle to be considered 
is of first importance ; the name employed in descrip- 
tion of the work is important only to the extent that 
it should be accurately descriptive of the nature of 
the principles involved in the healing act. 

The term Metaphysical Healing is derived from 
the English noun Metaphysics. It is employed here 
because Metaphysics is the only word that, in scope, 
covers every form of those activities of life which 
make an act of healing possible to the human mind. 
It correctly describes both the principle and its action, 
and accurately names the theory on which the healing 
power is based. The following are standard defini- 
tions of the word and descriptions of the idea: 

"Metaphysics is the science of Being." "The 
science of the conceptions and relations which are 
necessarily implied to be true of every kind of 
Being — philosophy in general ; the science of first 
principles."* It is the basis of all knowledge. 

"Metaphysics is the science of the first principles 
of Being, the science of the first principles of knowl- 
edge, and the science of the beginning and the end 
of all things — the absolute unity of Being and 
Thought."! It is the foundation of action. 

"Metaphysics is the science which deals with the 
principles which are presupposed in all Being and 
Knowing." This designates it as universal knowledge. 
-Webster. fAristotle. 



40 KNOWLEDGE OE BEING. 

"The beginnings of Science and of Metaphysics 
are identical ; although there is a sense in which Meta- 
physics comes before the Scientific era."* 

Metaphysics is mathematical, therefore exact; 
knowledge of its principles is necessarily scientific 
understanding. Mathematics, also, is metaphysical, 
and underlies all real law in the universe. DeQuincey 
says : 

"Mathematics has not a foot to stand upon 
which is not purely metaphysical." "All parts of 
knowledge have their origin in Metaphysics and 
finally, perhaps, revolve into it." 

Knowledge of Being, in any of its forms, is strictly 
metaphysical, also mathematical, in its nature. Con- 
scious understanding of any definite law of life is 
knowledge of that part of Being ; for every real Law 
and every true Principle is an active, living part of 
Being itself. The Principle is the living entity, 
while the corresponding Law is its expression. 
Through the activity of law the energy of prin- 
ciple is manifested. Healthy, living action is the 
natural result. It is the inheritance of everyone. 

There are no new laws of Being; there is only 
discovery of law by those to whom that subject is 
new. If the theory advanced be rightly founded upon 
first principles, it is a part of the one Science of Being 
and accurately deals with the corresponding laws: for 



'Encyclopaedia Britannica. 



METAPHYSICAL PRINCIPLES. 47 

science is only a concise name for knowledge of law, 
and Being means living, essential principle. 

Every metaphysical principle has some direct 
bearing upon the activities of life, thereby affecting 
the health of the human race. A theory of healing 
established upon these principles must be metaphysical 
in character; therefore, the application of acquired 
knowledge of principles and laws of life to the act 
of healing becomes a "special metaphysics," accurately 
described by the term Metaphysical Healing. 

The method of metaphysical healing is based upon 
the laws which govern the intelligent side of human 
nature. In various degrees of activity this includes 
the intellectual, thinking and reasoning faculties of 
mind, the intuitive faculties of the soul, and the per- 
ceptive faculties of the spiritual nature. 

The Philosophy of metaphysical healing deals 
with the elements and activities of human nature on 
all planes of existence, beginning with sense-evidence 
and leading up through intellectual comprehension, 
logical reasoning and the intuition of the soul, to pure 
spiritual perception of the fundamental principles of 
Being. The universal information thereby gained 
develops an understanding of humanity in all phases 
of life. This is essential to a knowledge of how to 
remedy the ills to which flesh has been supposed 
to be heir, but which proceed mostly from man's 
misunderstanding of his real nature. 



48 KNOWLEDGE IN DETAIL. 

This line of investigation, properly pursued, will 
give a clear knowledge, in detail, of the principal 
activities of the physical body, of the relation exist- 
ing between mind and body, including the action of 
the individual mind both upon its own body and upon 
other minds, and of mental activities on the moral 
plane, so far as may be necessary in order that a 
healthy state of both body and mind may be estab- 
lished in natural harmony. This prepares a right 
foundation for the still higher development of those 
faculties of the spiritual nature of every individual, 
which frequently lie almost dormant underneath the 
accumulation of materialistic opinions of an opposite 
character. The faculties should be exercised. 

Investigation of mental activities has been con- 
ducted with quite as thorough and painstaking 
earnestness as the physician employs in examination 
of the physical structure, or as the scientist in any 
material line devotes to his particular subject. By 
this means fresh facts are constantly brought to the 
surface and the knowledge becomes extended. 

The practical theory of Metaphysical Healing may 
be stated as follows : Proceeding naturally from the 
fundamental principles of Being, there are definite 
universal laws of mental activity through which the 
movements of physical bodies are always regulated. 
These laws are fundamental to all modes of physical 
action and to experience on any objective plane of life. 



ACTIVITY IN MAN. 49 

Man, the intelligent, thinking and reasoning Indi- 
vidual, is a living entity organized upon these prin- 
ciples and laws, in accordance with which he acts and 
reacts in thought and perception, outwardly and 
inwardly, in unison with the fundamental principles 
of the universe. By individual compliance with these 
laws, results in harmonious and healthy action are 
outwardly expressed through natural law on the 
physical body, as well as on the minds of others who 
enter the same field of activity. All of this activity 
is mental and in its exercise the mind operates as the 
man himself. It is the man, on that plane. 

Through intelligent understanding, these laws are 
accessible and if understood the influence will be cor- 
rect, producing results which must be harmonious and 
healthy. If not understood, wrong action is probable 
and correspondingly discordant results in the life of 
that individual are absolutely certain, regardless 
of intentions. 

Mental action conducted contrary to the laws of 
universal life, whether it be intentional or accidental, 
conscious or otherwise, is not in harmony with the 
mathematical exactness of fundamental principles, 
therefore is discordant in character, producing out- 
ward results of distress, which vary in intensity with 
the degree of departure from exact law. 

These results may be attributed to various external 
agencies, but really they are the natural outcome of 



50 MENTAL HEALING. 

mental action maintained in erroneous channels. The 
only right remedy is a change in the course of the 
mental action involved. Power to effect this change 
for another, rests solely in knowledge of the funda- 
mental principles of being and their working laws. 
Comprehension of these facts leads to the following 
reply to our opening questions : 

1st. What is Mental or Metaphysical Healing? 

Metaphysical Healing is a mental method of 
establishing health through knowledge of the prin- 
ciples of Metaphysics. The principles of Metaphysics 
are the permanent laws of the universe, therefore 
they are the underlying laws of human existence. 

2d. In what sense is it properly metaphysical? 

It is metaphysical in the sense that every step in 
its practice is taken in exact accordance with some 
definite fundamental principle of the living activities 
of Being. Being is the active, conscious reality of 
the universe. It should be recognized everywhere. 

3d. What knowledge is the basis of the theory? 

The theory is based upon knowledge of those laws 
which are fundamental to human life, and which in 
repeated tests prove to be the same for all individuals, 
varying only in degree of intensity, never failing or 
becoming inoperative while life remains. 

4th. What actual benefits are likely to arise 
from a correct understanding of the principles 
involved in true Metaphysical Healing? 



THE UNDERLYING CAUSE. 51 

(a.) Through knowledge of the various activities 
of conscious life, gained by a full understanding of 
the philosophy of [Metaphysical Healing, it is possible 
to learn the underlying cause of any form or degree 
of sickness — mental, moral or physical. By the 
natural force of properly directed thought-energy, this 
cause may be removed without the agency of opiate, 
stimulant or any injurious process. With such assist- 
ance, those who are sick from any cause may be 
restored to health and natural duration of life by a 
return to the harmony of the natural action of both 
body and mind, provided that a cure is still possible 
in that case by any means. In most cases it is. 

Experience proves that myriads of cases that have 
heretofore been considered incurable may be per- 
manently cured by means of metaphysical under- 
standing of the facts of life's experience, when dealt 
with by an understanding mind, under suitable con- 
ditions for natural restoration to health. 

Discords known as physical diseases have their 
origin in mal-action of some of the natural functions 
of the system, which in turn are under direct control 
of the mental mechanism. By establishing correct 
mental activity, the wrong action is changed to a right 
one in both the mental and the physical organisms, 
and the disease is effectually undermined. 

(b.) New energy and activity enter with the 
understanding of causes and reasons, and moral tend- 



52 INTEMPERANCE CURABLE. 

encies are quickened. Both mental and spiritual 
faculties become more active, and natural abilities are 
correspondingly increased in power for action. This 
develops the best qualities possible to that . individual 
mind, and insures a large degree of power. 

Parents, guardians, nurses, and all who have 
charge of the education of children and the care of 
invalids or others, find the understanding of natural 
law to be the most efficient help in management. 
Those in possession of such knowledge, properly 
applied, attain a degree of success that is otherwise 
impossible. This is true in all paths of life. 

(c.) The intemperate, who wish to reform and 
who will, to a reasonable extent, co-operate with the 
metaphysician, are assisted in the most effective way 
by removal of the original cause of the desire for a 
stimulant, after which the unnatural appetite van- 
ishes and the sufferer recovers his normal condition 
of health and happiness. His cure, then, is permanent. 

Metaphysical Healing will soon be known as the 
real remedy for the hitherto unconquerable malady, 
Intemperance, because it strikes at the root of the evil, 
which has been discovered in no other philosophy. 

5th. Has Metaphysical Healing any foundation in 
science, philosophy, logic or reason? 

(a.) Science. The word Science literally means 
knowledge of fundamental law. The foundation of 
Metaphysical Healing rests upon science, because it 



SCIENCE, LOGIC AND REASON. 53 

is based on theoretical knowledge of principles, and 
the healing theory is constructed on definite under- 
standing of the active laws which proceed from those 
principles. No feature of any theory is accepted as 
final until it has been proved and demonstrated, with- 
out possibility of disproof and without an instance 
of failure, when it can be applied under the exact 
conditions which are necessary for a fair test of any 
scientific problem. It is, of course, equally important 
that the test should be conducted by one capable of 
examining with scientific comprehension. 

(b.) Logic. Metaphysical Healing is logical in 
character, because the action is a process of thought, 
in "classification, judgment, pure reasoning and sys- 
tematic arrangement of ideas," bearing upon those 
laws and principles of life which relate to health, con- 
sidered in their direct bearing upon a given case. A 
correct treatment is a pure, formal process of thought 
based upon comprehension of the principles involved 
in the condition requiring to be changed. 

"Pure logic is the true form or formal laws of 
thinking ; applied logic teaches the application of the 
forms of thinking to those objects about which we 
think." In metaphysical practice, applied logic is 
employed while dealing with Ideas and forming 
thought processes to produce healthy results. 

(c.) Reason. Logical reasoning leads the mind 
upward through intellectual process to the higher 



54 PHILOSOPHY. 

planes of activity, where principles are comprehended. 
The conclusive act of pure metaphysical treatment is 
a clear comprehension of the Principles of Life 
involved in the case under treatment. 

(d.) Philosophy. Metaphysical Healing is a phi- 
losophy of existence, because it deals with the phe- 
nomena of life as explained by and resolved into 
"causes and reasons, powers and laws," with regard 
to both sickness and health, showing the active causes 
of sickness, teaching the fundamental laws of health, 
and explaining the reason for each action in life. 

The true metaphysician makes a constant study 
of these real Laws and bases all of his calculations on 
their permanent rules, logically reasoning from one to 
the other, until the powers of the actual fundamental 
principles are reached and comprehended in their uses. 

Philosophy has been defined as "The science of 
effects by their causes." Metaphysical Healing con- 
siders every sickness to be an effect, mathematically 
determines the cause, which rests in the original 
wrong mental action, accidental or otherwise, oblit- 
erates it by causing that action to cease, and estab- 
lishes a mental action of an opposite character in 
its place. 

In this way sickness is replaced by health, on 
the mental plane, from which it was originally reflecced 
and re-enacted in the physical mechanism. 

"Philosophy is the science of things deduced from 



SCIENTIFIC DEMONSTRATION. 55 

first principles." In metaphysical diagnostication for 
causes of evident effects, one deals through reason, 
with the fundamental principles of the life-activities 
of the patient. Through this process the real seat of 
the trouble is reached and a final conclusion arrived 
at, which, if rightly followed out,, will result in per- 
manent eradication of the harmful effect on both the 
mental and physical planes. This is pure healing. 

The line of logical reasoning and compre- 
hension of principles which renders this act 
possible, must eventually result in a Philosophy 
of Life and a Science of Healing, alike logical, 
reasonable, certain, safe, and universal in application. 

6th. Is the theory and working power of Meta- 
physical Healing capable of scientific demonstration? 

The theory is based upon eternal principles of 
Truth — actual verities : not material but spiritual in 
essence ; therefore they must be spiritually examined. 
The practical field of operation for such examination 
can be reached only through intellectual comprehen- 
sion of the facts of Law, which leads eventually to 
direct perception of Principles, on the plane of real 
consciousness above that of physical sensation. Here 
the details of theory may be examined as directly as 
can any object on the physical plane, and thus may 
be actually known, though directly provable only to 
one who has recognized and learned to use the 
instruments required for spiritual manipulation 



56 PHYSICAL CHANGE THROUGH MENTAL ACTION. 

of principles, through exercise of the higher 
understanding. 

The working power of metaphysical healing can 
neither be pulverized in a mortar, applied as a poul- 
tice, nor hypodermically injected; it cannot be swal- 
lowed, handled or microscopically examined; yet it 
proceeds from a true theory, possessing exact pro- 
portions, capable of precise delineation in metaphysical 
terms to those who are suitably prepared to examine 
principles on their own ground. 

The theory is outwardly demonstrated, and the 
existence of its principles made known to the world 
through power of action upon the human mind, and 
to those who require sense-evidence, more especially 
in its power for healing physical ailments. 

In this fertile field of action the physical change 
of tissue that will inevitably follow rightly directed 
mental effort, gives adequate ocular demonstration of 
the possible physical results to be obtained from 
correct metaphysical operation through the intelligence 
itself, when thought is based upon principles. 

It is possible to so examine this process as to 
eliminate every chance of an external reason for the 
resultant changes, and to repeat the process in suc- 
cessive experiments until the fact that physical change 
can be produced through mental action, unaided, is 
proved as absolutely as the well-known fact that oxy- 
gen and hydrogen, combined on a definite base of 



EXACTNESS IN CHEMICAL ACTION. 57 

mathematical principle, will produce water, although 
neither of the fundamental elements when examined 
separately bears the least seeming relation to water. 

The universal importance of mathematical prin- 
ciple in the construction and continuance of the uni- 
verse, is demonstrated in the fact that the relation 
of water to oxygen and hydrogen does not exist under 
any other condition than the definite mathematical 
formula H. O. The least variation from this exact 
proportion renders the formula inoperative. This 
is equally true of every physical element — even of the 
material universe itself. Mathematical principle is 
the vital essence of every constructed thing and of 
every element. It is the life of the thing. 

The knowledge gained by adequate examination 
of the laws of mental action is equally scientific with 
the knowledge of chemical laws, the cause for the 
action of which no chemist can explain, though the 
action and its accompanying force are known to exist. 
Not only is the working power of metaphysical heal- 
ing thereby proved, but the truth of the theory from 
which definite power is repeatedly produced, is also 
demonstrated with equal exactness and certainty. 

?th. Will the knowledge of Metaphysical Healing 
be of permanent benefit to man? 

That which results in changes at the foundation, 
bringing forward fundamental principles of life and 
causing the individual to conform his actions to them, 



58 SAFETY IN METAPHYSICS. 

must inevitably result in permanent good ; because a 
true idea once aroused in mind can never be lost, but 
remains forever a part of that mind which has con- 
ceived the eternal fact of its living principles, regard- 
less of the immediate act of conscious memory. The 
spiritual essence of that Idea has become a part of 
the living substance of that Individuality — this is indi- 
vidual development. It endures forever. - 

Because erroneous opinions are devoid of funda- 
mental principle, they may be eradicated; but a true 
idea once comprehended is forever incorporated in the 
understanding, resulting in permanent development 
for that individual, which can never be overthrown. 
Comprehension of metaphysical principles must result 
in advancement, which will inevitably reflect in 
improved action on the moral, the intellectual, and 
eventually on the physical plane of that individual's 
daily life on this earth-plane. 

8th. Can harm result from the practice of Meta- 
physical Healing? 

The pure application of metaphysical principles 
can never harm, or result in any but good and bene- 
ficial acts, because it is based upon and proceeds 
directly from genuine principles of eternal truth, 
which are necessarily pure both in character and in 
the result of .their action. Darkness can never pro- 
ceed from light, because it is not contained therein. 

One who seems to produce evil effects by act of 



PROTECTION THROUGH THOUGHT. 59 

thought is not working with principles, therefore is 
incapable of producing metaphysical results. Prin- 
ciples are the only verities of the universe ; conse- 
quently, he is not dealing with reality and can pro- 
duce no permanently effective result: Indeed, no 
result whatever can be so produced without either 
conscious consent or subconscious willingness on the 
part of the recipient to unite in activity which is con- 
trary to the nature of principles. 

With adequate knowledge on these points each 
intelligent mind can safely be its own guide, guard 
and defender in all similar action. Stand firm in a 
clear realization of actual principles and no error can 
touch you. 

Thought-action, to be permanent, must be true ; it 
must operate according to principles. To accord with 
principles, it must be based upon a clear, conscious 
apprehension of the principles of reality. Such 
thought, when active in one mind, sends an outward 
current of this realization into the mental atmosphere, 
where it is absorbed by others. Only good influence 
can proceed from such activity. 

True thought-action leads to realization, not to 
desire. The thinker who yields to evil inclinations 
and aims to harm another, follows self-desire, which 
is devoid of principle, and utterly fails to realize any 
true idea. In wilful selfishness he blindly hopes for 
action contrary to 1n w; such action would be with- 



60 NO PRINCIPLE OF EVIL. 

out living principle or essential quality, therefore 
unreal, inoperative and abortive in the end. He wil- 
fully desires but fails to realize; therefore, he accom- 
plishes nothing real or enduring. His effort falls flat. 

Lacking "realization," imagination is not an endur- 
ing mental act, therefore not a real thought. Pos- 
sessing realization of principle, it is true, therefore 
real and necessarily good; for only reality can be 
realized in the true sense of the word, and only 
that which is good can possess genuine principle 
of reality. This is universally true. 

The essential quality of reality is good: its action 
necessarily must be good and the result harmonious. 
The good and the true are eternal, and may be per- 
manently realized by every independent thinker. 

The sense of evil contains no fundamental principle 
of living reality, and cannot possibly perpetuate itself. 
It possesses no real quality — no eternal essence ; its 
only definite characteristic is its own native nothing- 
ness, and its only existence is in a false imagination. 

Discord is deceptive under certain circumstances, 
but unreal; no harm can come from it except to him 
who believes its falsity to be truth. Even then the 
result proceeds from the undemonstrated opinion, not 
from any actual entity, and it only expresses the falsity 
of the opinion. Nothing can render it true. 

Knowledge of law proves a safeguard here, and is 
a complete protection. Wrongly inclined thought can 



THE IMPORTANCE OF KNOWLEDGE. 61 

harm no one who knows the true laws, and through 
their exercise lives in the principles of harmonious 
Being. Metaphysical thought-action can never result 
in harm, under any circumstances. 

All enduring Principle is one eternal whole of 
essential reality. All permanent Law is one per- 
petual harmony of living activity. Every thought 
based upon realization of eternal principle is a real 
and lawful activity, essentially good in its nature. It 
is an active element of pure goodness which, when 
projected by one mind, is capable of being seen, heard 
or felt by others. These in turn become its thinkers, 
and pass it along to those who, through ready will- 
ingness to learn and know that which is true in the 
universe, are receptive to its harmonious influence, in 
endless succession of progressive action, just as a 
pebble falling in a body of water starts a rippling 
circle outward, which, though unperceived in its jour- 
ney, will end only where no water is to respond in 
undulations — where there is no element in which its 
action can be registered ; actually, nowhere. 

Knowledge of metaphysical principles is equally 
important to every member of the human family: for 
the comfort, even the continuance of the physical life 
of each one here, is certain some day to hinge upon 
the understanding of some one or more of the uni- 
versal principles which are common to the life of 
every individual. No one can avoid them. 



62 REALITY OPEN TO ALL. 

Principles are no respecters of persons, but they 
teem with the goodness of life, which is equally free 
to every living soul as is the light and warmth of the 
noonday sun. Each has but to rightly seek, in order 
to find and be able to lawfully appropriate his unlim- 
ited share of the inexhaustible supply of Universal 
Reality. No real power ever obstructs him in this 
progress. 

One living water of good perpetually bubbles 
forth from the eternal fountain of essential reality. 
Realization always gives full possession. None are 
excluded from its universal good. Reality belongs 
to everybody. Let each one realize and possess it. 



III. 

METAPHYSICS 

VERSUS 

HYPNOTISM 



CHAPTER III. 

METAPHYSICS versus HYPNOTISM. 
Is Mind Cure Mesmerism? 

The advent and success of mental methods of heal- 
ing have called attention to the fact that some influ- 
ence other than medical can be beneficially exerted 
in sickness, This results in the conviction that mind 
can act directly upon mind, without the intervention 
of the physical senses. Scientific investigation in 
various quarters of the globe has forced this conclu- 
sion, and the existence of an influence, at least not 
entirely physical, now must be acknowledged by those 
who would recognize the progress of the age. 

To some thinkers the theories advanced with 
regard to mesmerism seem to offer the most 
plausible explanation of the various phenomena of 
mental healing. But these views are immature. 

The power of mesmeric influence has been gen- 
erally denied, and its practice condemned, by many 
who were supposed to understand its ground, since it 
was first brought to notice by Mesmer, in Vienna, 
in 1?T<;. Extended experiment has proved, however, 
that power rests in that particular phase of mental 

G5 



66 MENTAL HEALING. 

action, to a greater extent than has generally been 
admitted. This having been proved, the subject 
demands recognition and a suitable classification 
among the powers of the human mind. 

The name Mesmerism has fallen into disrepute 
because of general condemnation of the subject, and 
the word Hypnotism, with which the public is not 
quite so familiar, appears to have been adopted as a 
new garment for the old subject. 

Under this name the theory that the independent 
will of one person may be fully controlled by the 
exercise of sufficient wilful determination on the part 
of another, is rapidly becoming an established 
fact with medical men of all schools, and is now con- 
sidered as possessing some degree of curative 
influence for the unthinking masses. 

Until the nature and extent of mental action is 
understood, it seems easier to comprehend a mental 
influence supposed to be exerted through a means 
which is physical in part, than one attributed to 
a purely mental agency. This may account for the 
frequency with which we hear the question : Is Men- 
tal Healing Mesmerism or Hypnotism? 

Occasionally the statement is seen in print over 
the signature of some one claiming authoritative 
information, that Mind Cure — what there is to it — 
is only a form, or feature of Hypnotism, and that 
eventually it will disappear in that "science." 



THE ANIMAL WILL. 67 

Xo greater mistake can be made than to suppose 
that the active influence of Metaphysical Healing, or 
of any real mental cure, is applied through the same 
modes of action which govern the influences now 
being exercised in hypnotic experiment. Those who 
make this assertion are either incorrectly informed as 
to the real nature of mental cure, or they are unac- 
quainted with the curative influence of metaphysical 
principles when exerted through the action of intelli- 
gent understanding; — perhaps, unacquainted with the 
principles themselves. In any event the action is 
misunderstood. 

The English word Hypnotism is derived from the 
Greek iinvo?,, meaning sleep, particularly an abnormal 
or somnambulistic sleep, seemingly induced by 
external means ;— a state of trance or some degree of 
insensibility to surroundings. 

During hypnotic influence the subject surrenders 
his will to that of the operator, who thereupon takes 
possession of the mental mechanism of the submis- 
sive victim and does with it what he chooses. Under 
this influence the subject acts according to the 
will of the other, neither knowing what he does nor 
caring for results. This is the brutal control of one 
personality by another, without moral element or 
agency. The action takes place entirely upon the 
lowest mental plane, that of the animal will — the 
brute plane of human life, where animal tendencies 



68 HYPNOTISM IMMORAL. 

prevail. Its resultant action is a downward moral 
influence for both subject and operator; neither one 
can tell where this deplorable inclination will cease. 

The hypnotic subject unconditionally surrenders 
his personality to the dictates of another, ceases to 
exercise his own faculties, and is temporarily without 
will, determination, moral or physical sensibility, 
choice, desire or power for independent action in any 
direction whatever. The operator acts through the 
mental mechanism of the subject, exercising control 
over the physical mechanism also, by the action of 
animal will. When the subject yields to this influence, 
he for the time being becomes practically non-existent 
except as the operator permits him to exist in imi- 
tative act. This state is most undesirable. 

Will is here . falsely placed above Intelligence — a 
position which cannot be permanently maintained. 
The force exerted is limited in action to the extent 
of animal will, which possesses much less power than 
is usually supposed. The limit of the animal will is 
reached before that of any other of the mental 
faculties. It never produces satisfactory results. 

The moral side of this question will not be dis- 
cussed here, further than to suggest that there is moral 
degradation in the unconditional surrender of one 
personality to the wilful control of another at any time, 
in any manner or under any circumstances. No 
rightly-informed person, unless he is to some extent 



SPIRITUAL INTELLIGENCE. 69 

morally degraded, would consent to deprive another 
of independent action for any other purpose than to 
save life or to do some great good not to be performed 
in any other way. Only this is warranted. 

In metaphysical treatment, however, an influence 
of an entirely different character is brought to bear 
upon the subject. Xo wilful control of the patient 
occurs at any time or under any circumstances. If 
personal control, or self-will power, is exerted, the 
act is unmetaphysical, and the operator not a true 
metaphysician. He cannot realize principles. 

The patient is left at all times in the utmost free- 
dom of possession of all his mental faculties ; indeed, 
this freedom is always cultivated as the most desir- 
able condition for effective mental treatment. 

Metaphysical treatment is based upon the Intelli- 
gence instead of the Will. Intelligence is considered 
of first importance, because it is a higher faculty than 
will, purer in character and more powerful in action. 
Even on the highest plane of spiritual action, where 
the higher element of divine will in man's constitu- 
tion is the instrument of action, the will is entirely 
subservient to the Intelligence, which it must obey. 

Metaphysics appeals to spiritual faculty rather 
than to animal impulse. It speaks through intelligent 
understanding of the principles of Being, to the 
spiritual intelligence of the human soul, presenting t<> 
that intelligent individual the facts of his own exist- 



70 METAPHYSICAL ASSISTANCE. 

ence, for superconscious consideration, and on them 
he may or may not act receptively, as he intelligently 
decides for himself. He is entirely free in the matter. 

In this manner Metaphysics instructs, and 
Metaphysical Healing guides the wanderer out 
of the path in which he suffers, into a higher 
path of understanding, leaving the will free and 
tintrammeled that it may develop to higher degrees of 
intelligent activity during this life. 

•Truths are presented mentally which the indi- 
vidual may receive or reject with perfect freedom; an 
attempt to force him into undesired paths would ren- 
der the act abortive, because intelligence never forces 
except through the shedding of light, and light bright- 
ens, rather than beclouds, the intellect; it quickens, 
but never stupefies either faculty or function. 
Metaphysical influence elevates, both intellectually 
and morally; it can never degrade any one. 

No good result can be produced through hypnotic 
control, even under the most favorable circumstances, 
which cannot be produced with greater benefit through 
an adequate knowledge of Metaphysics, and without 
the dangerous features, both moral and physical, that 
invariably attend the surrender of will and conscious 
intelligence. This action is always degrading. 

Comparison of hypnotic and metaphysical influ- 
ence may be made as follows : Hypnotism is a mental 
influence based upon the act of overpowering the ani- 



DIVINE WILL AND POWER. 71 

mal will, which is the lowest degree of mental deter- 
mination, or choice of action. Its power for operation 
rests entirely with this limitation of the mental 
nature. Metaphysical Healing, however, is a mental 
act based upon spiritual intelligence. It covers 
the entire mental and spiritual nature, including the 
element of Divine Will, which is the only real element 
of will. The power proceeds from intelligent compre- 
hension of the principles of the universe. This com- 
prehension includes all true power for mental action. 
When the nature of hypnotism is fully understood, 
its present feature of a wilful control of one by 
another, on the self plane, will be eliminated, and 
man's real power for mental action will be recognized. 
That power is a loving guidance, by means of intelli- 
gent understanding, of the element of Divine Will 
which inheres in the real nature of every individual. 
When this is accomplished selfish purpose will disap- 
pear and the power of hypnotism, now so astonish- 
ing, will be increased a thousandfold. Its present dis- 
agreeable name and character will also vanish ; and its 
power for good will have merged into the parent 

power, INTELLIGENT UNDERSTANDING OF THE REAL 

laws of Being — rightly named, Metaphysics. Then the 
branch will be justly recognized as an active part of 
the living tree, from which it originally sprang and on 
which it must always depend for further existence. 
The present methods of hypnotism lead downward, 



72 HYPNOTIC EXPERIMENT. 

and, if continued, must end in disaster to the theories, 
and final annihilation of the system. In the light of 
present developments this result seems reasonably 
certain, within a limited period of time. 

Recent accounts of hypnotic experiments made in 
France mention achievements in the diagnosis of diffi- 
cult cases, in which mental causes of disease were 
discovered by means of awakened memory on the part 
of the subjects, while in hypnotic trance. In one 
instance the subject recounted the details of an inci- 
dent in childhood^ which was considered a mental cause 
of her sickness. This cause was rendered quiescent, 
for the time being, by stating to her while in the trance 
state, that which the operator desired her to believe 
about the occurrence. This was considered necessary 
and justifiable because of the ends to be attained. 

If there were no other way possible of giving 
relief, this might, perhaps, seem justifiable; but, as a 
matter of fact, the result obtained by this means is 
only the most feeble kind of a repetition of that which 
Mental Healing has been doing for many years, and 
has successfully accomplished in thousands of 
instances, both as regards the diagnosis and the cure, 
without any interference with perfectly free action of 
will on the part of the patient; without trance or any 
unnatural condition ; and entirely independent of any 
hypnotic or mesmeric influence whatsoever. 

Moreover, metaphysical understanding of the actual 



DISCOVERY OF CAUSES. 73 

principles that are involved, enables the operator to 
permanently efface the troublesome element of morbid 
fear or the disturbed mental emotion which produced 
the disease, by causing the mental image to cease 
its distorted action and vanish, while consciously 
speaking the truth in regard to it and knowing why 
the statements are true. This is one advantage pos- 
sessed by the higher branch of the healing art. 

In metaphysical diagnostication, similar mental 
causes, often fifty, sixty, seventy or more years past 
in life are brought forward in the memory — some- 
times by questioning, at other times, where conscious 
memory does not work with clearness, by intelligent 
treatment which renews the mental faculties and 
freshens the memory; and instances are not uncommon 
in which they have been discovered psychically, with- 
out volition or conscious memory on the part of either 
the operator or the patient. 

Metaphysical Healing has several ways of reach- 
ing the mental causes of sickness, any of which is bet- 
ter than hypnotic trance, because more natural and 
entirely harmless, while equally effective and abso- 
lutely permanent, with no possible chance for unde- 
sirable complications. Its action is always safe. 

Metaphysics strikes at the root of every harmful 
mental influence and annihilates it without danger or 
injury to any faculty. Principles never harm 
anything real. 



74 METAPHYSICS AND INTELLIGENCE. 

Metaphysics encourages, while hypnotism sup- 
presses, intelligence on the part of its subject. 
Because of this fact metaphysical healing, in every 
branch, invariably meets its greatest success with intel- 
ligent people, while business and professional people 
possessing mental ability are peculiarly susceptible to 
its healing and restoring influence. The greater the 
degree of intelligence the more prompt and effective 
the response to treatment, and restoration to health. 
This relates to innate intelligence and its development 
in the mind, not necessarily to education or social 
advantages. These sometimes are a matter of circum- 
stances rather than selection. 

On the other hand, it is notorious that hypnotism 
and all external mesmeric influences find their most 
submissive subjects among the uncultured and men- 
tally inactive. The subservient invariably prove the 
best subjects for hypnotic experiment. This is because 
a submissive will is necessary to a pliant hypnotic 
subject, while intelligent mental activity is incom- 
patible with willing submission to unjust influence. 
Intellectual power renders one rightly independent 
and unsubmissive to selfish personal dictation, under 
all circumstances and in all degrees of consciousness. 

In hypnotic experiment the subject must submit, 
either consciously or subconsciously, to the wilful act 
of the operator, before any appreciable degree of con- 
trol can be exerted. It is because of this fact that 



INDEPENDENT MENTALITY. 75 

under experiment so many people prove poor hypnotic 
subjects. Xo intelligent individual can be hypnotized 
or mesmerized against his will when it is properly exer- 
cised, or without his own consent. This statement 
holds absolutely true with regard to direct influence 
when the subject is present with the operator; in the 
case of absent influence it will be equally true if the 
subject be naturally independent and intellectually 
active in assertion of his own higher will, through 
knowledge of the laws of real being, and alert to recog- 
nize influences which it is required to counteract. 
Knowledge is an absolute protection ; — the hypnotic 
act is powerless without some degree of compliance 
on the part of the subject, either conscious or sub- 
conscious, in its direct mentality. 

In metaphysical treatment appeal is made to the 
Individual Intelligence, and ideas that have been 
proved the facts of universal life are presented for 
intellectual comprehension on the higher plane of 
mentality, where the finest and best of the human 
faculties are exercised, and where fundamental truths 
will be recognized on presentation. On this plane of 
consciousness the patient is always within reach of 
the guiding influence of right thoughts in regard to the 
activities of his own life, and lie follows them. 

Because of these Principles, metaphysicians, to be 
universally successful,, must be honest and conscien- 
tious ; rightly, not morbidly sympathetic ; possessing 



76 INTELLIGENCE AND RESPONSIVENESS. 

clear intellectual comprehension of the affairs of 
human life, together with pure understanding of the 
spiritual side of human nature as expressed in the 
Divine Will, the good influence of which man shares 
in common with all Being. He need never be in want. 

If we recognize these facts, it is easy to under- 
stand that it is not, as frequently supposed, the men- 
tally feeble, the weak, vacillating mortal, the imag- 
inative, credulous or cranky specimen of humanity, 
neither is it necessarily the inexperienced, the unso- 
phisticated, the ignorant, or the least important mem- 
ber of the human family that is the most susceptible 
to the influence of metaphysical healing, but quite the 
reverse. The most intelligent are the most keenly 
sensitive and responsive to treatment. 

Metaphysics appeals most powerfully to the great- 
est minds, building an adamantine tower of under- 
standing on a rock foundation of fact; while hypno- 
tism, even in the highest acts of its present aspect is, 
comparatively, but the plaything of children in the 
sand. A dangerous plaything, at that — a two-edged 
tool, dagger-pointed at either end. Trust it not. 

When thought is applied for the purpose of help- 
ing another by means of hypnotism, it should be care- 
fully formulated, with a design to express only prin- 
ciples of truth, in such ways as may be applicable to 
the case in hand. The statements made should convey 
a clear understanding of truth and fact, rather than 



LIMITATION OF ANIMAL IMPULSE. 77 

be framed for the accomplishing of some self-desire 
or personal wish — even though it be a desire to bene- 
fit the subject himself. The extremely personal 
element that is expressed in the thought which is 
based upon a conscious desire for self-gratification 
or wilful accomplishment weakens the thought- 
action involved and prevents the higher powers 
from expressing themselves. Then the lower 
or animal tendencies of the mind will prevail. 
These may seem exceedingly satisfactory, but 
they have limitations much nearer at hand than is 
usually supposed, and in their forcing lurks a danger 
because of the limited knowledge of the psychic phases 
of mentality which are inevitably involved with all 
such unknown action. 

Every act of thought that reproduces the clear 
understanding of a true statement comes forward 
reinforced by the consciousness of right in the 
transaction, and exhibits power in every act that 
it undertakes. This generates true force. 

This power will express itself on the physical 
plane in outward action; on the mental plane in the 
conscious operations of the mind ; and on the psychic 
plane in subconscious mental action. This last, how- 
ever, is usually misjudged and misinterpreted. 

The mind of one needing assistance may be influ- 
enced subconsciously with silent thought based upon 
the requirements of the case. If the thought be cen- 



78 THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF RIGHT. 

tered in the truth and caused to operate through a 
consciousness of the absolute right of the matter, it 
will move with great power for good. 

And this action will vastly increase the degree of 
intelligence expressed by the mind of the subject, who 
is thereby uplifted and helped in ways that no other 
power can surely aid him in accomplishing. 

A realization of truth through the consciousness 
of right is a mighty power, which always operates for 
the universal good. It may be difficult, at first, to 
recognize the real working of the law, but confidence 
in the "right" will make it clear in the end. 

Principles always rule activities, and right eventu- 
ally prevails in every transaction. "The mills of the 
gods grind slowly, but they grind exceeding small." 
Real law has definite ways of accomplishing its 
purposes. 



IV. 



THE POTENCY OF METAPHYSICS 
IN SURGERY 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE POTEXCY OF METAPHYSICS IN 
SURGERY. 

Does Mental Healing Claim to Replace Surgery? 

The relation of the subject of Metaphysical Heal- 
ing to the practice of surgery in regard to its possible 
efficiency in cases of physical injury, is a question 
which frequently arises. The most common opinion 
is that in cases of a physical nature, mental influence 
must be inoperative, because it is not supposed either 
that mind was in any way involved in the affair that 
caused the injury, or that it can have any influence on 
the present physical condition. Some entirely errone- 
ous opinions on this subject are frequently expressed 
by those who have not been correctly informed either 
with regard to the scope of mental action, or the posi- 
tion in which metaphysicians stand on the question. 
Absurdity does not attach to this class of thinkers. 

The opinion seems to be somewhat prevalent that 
to affirm a mental cure is to proclaim a miracle. This 
thought sometimes leads to the conclusion that if the 
professor is sincere, he must consider himself the 
possessor of miraculous powers, and it is inferred that 

81 



82 MENTAL HEALING. 

he will claim the ability to perform impossible acts, 
regardless of natural law. 

Those who hold these absurdities usually entertain 
some such notion as that food, drink, air and sleep 
should be unnecessary to one who has the power to 
heal through thought, and if he should sneeze, cough, 
yawn, rest, exercise or enjoy himself in any natural 
way, he would thereby prove himself to be an 
impostor. These notions have been too common. 

These and kindred absurdities are based upon the 
one assumption that ability to perform miracles is 
postulated of the power to heal through act of mind. 
This notion is without foundation in reliable meta- 
physical instruction or practice; the claim never pro- 
ceeds from a metaphysical mind. 

No class of thinkers have a deeper appreciation of 
the importance of natural law in human experience 
than rightly trained metaphysicians, whose entire 
study is that of law and principle. 

What might be done through sufficient information 
with regard to all the higher principles of the uni- 
verse, is not the most important question for imme- 
diate consideration, but, rather, what may be accom- 
plished here and now, through accessible knowledge of 
universal laws. This is the problem which metaphysi- 
cians are called upon to solve for the immediate good 
of suffering humanity. When this has been accom- 
plished, and the knowledge concentrated for effective 



NATURAL LAW. 83 

action, higher degrees of understanding may properly 
be aspired to, and will then be comprehended. 

Everything that actually takes place, under any 
circumstances, is proved natural by the fact that it 
does take place, and it prevails only because of the 
existence of perfectly natural laws of that kind and 
quality. The investigator who neglects study of those 
laws will fail in every trying position. 

If an act seems to be supernatural, it is only 
because this is the observer's first conscious experience 
with the law involved. When he becomes acquainted 
with its modes of action, its seemingly supernatural 
character will vanish, and it will receive suitable classi- 
fication with nature's legitimate transactions. 

There are no miracles — the word is a misnomer. 
That which occurs in lines of action beyond present 
comprehension of natural law, has been called a mirac- 
ulous act, and supposed to have been performed with- 
out regard to either laws or principles. Any act, 
however simple, seems a miracle until accounted for 
by natural law ; that instant its miraculous character 
vanishes. Our electric light would seem supernatural 
to an inhabitant of darkest Africa, unacquainted with 
the laws of electricity ; yet to us it is a simple fact, 
easily accounted for on a natural plane of lawful 
activity. It is now accepted as a universal law. 

If it be proved that an entirely new kind of power 
has been recently exerted, producing action hitherto 



84 LAWLESS ACTION INOPERATIVE. 

unaccounted for, therefore impossible by any known 
law of activity, then the very fact that it has occurred, 
at once establishes this mode of action as one of the 
existing laws of the universe; not previously recog- 
nized, perhaps, but a law, nevertheless, else it could 
not have been in action for a purpose. 

If we say this is not law, but a special act per- 
formed without dependence upon, and contrary to, law 
we thereby postulate a lawless operator, destitute of 
principle, and, in the ultimate, devoid of Being. If 
there is no law in an action there is no principle behind 
it, and if no principle no being. Being is the essential 
principle of the universe and of everything in it. 
Without principle, neither being nor act of being 
is conceivable, in the light of the true meaning of 
both terms. Being is ultimate reality; principle is 
its activity. 

Continued investigation invariably demonstrates 
the natural character of every divine act. When the 
thinker masters the details of that species of activity, 
with the mechanism sufficient for its manipulation, he 
has at his own command the once miraculous power. 
Thus that which yesterday was considered miraculous 
or supernatural, is to-day perfectly natural and may 
be lucidly explained; while that which to-day still 
seems a miracle, to-morrow perhaps, will be recog- 
nized as the simplest of nature's playful acts. 

Knowledge of the laws of Being shows all possible 



THE "MIRACLE" THEORY. 85 

action to be natural, because it proceeds from the laws 
themselves ; therefore no power whatever can be 
exerted by any intelligence, save through the action of 
some law, in expression of the quality of some one of 
the principles of being. 

The real part of every entity is its principle. Only 
this can act at any time or for any purpose. A prin- 
ciple can act only by expressing its quality, and this 
in turn can be accomplished only through the law 
which exists for that purpose ; therefore all expression 
of the quality of any principle must be, and invariably 
is, natural, lawful action. With adequate comprehen- 
sion of the principles involved, the true character of 
the act will be recognized without undue effort. 

The fact is, that Nature — Universal Mind — has 
yet in store myriads of modes of natural action and 
innumerable degrees of power, with which the human 
individual is as yet unacquainted. Man has been grad- 
ually learning these ways and the laws thereof, from 
the beginning. At every period he has considered all 
visible action that was beyond his comprehension, as 
the result of miraculous intervention in a supernatural 
manner on the part of some superhuman being. This 
is the history of the growth of human comprehension 
in all ages and among all classes. 

Man\ laws of action in the universe, that were 
formerly unknown, are now understood; conse- 
quently, many acts have become possible to the human 



86 KNOWLEDGE GIVES POWER. 

mind that were impossible before the acquirement of 
that knowledge. Mental healing is one of the 
advanced degrees of power that have developed from 
this understanding. The knowledge and the power 
go hand in hand. The same laws are involved in all 
conditions, both mental and physical, though the 
details of action are different. 

The knowledge which gives power to heal dis- 
eased conditions, also makes it possible to relieve all 
unnatural conditions. In surgical cases distinct results 
may be produced by the removal of mental distress 
— fear, anxiety, worry, grief and pain, all of which are 
obstructions to nature's restorative processes and help 
to delay recovery. By no means the least of these 
results is the power to remove the particular impres- 
sion of fear, fright, and mental or nervous shock 
which was produced at the time, of the accident, and 
which frequently delays recovery because it continues 
active subconsciously, in the mind of the patient, even 
regardless of memory. 

Mental assistance in quieting fear is legitimate 
metaphysical work, which is in some degree valuable 
in every surgical case. Mental Healing readily accom- 
plishes this result, frees the mind of agitation and 
restores natural action in every part of the system, by 
removing mental obstructions to recovery, thereby 
rendering to nature the only advantageous assistance 
possible under any natural circumstances. 



MENTAL ASSISTANCE IN SURGERY. 87 

With the right mental conditions bones knit more 
rapidly and firmly, flesh heals in a fraction of the time 
usually claimed to be necessary, and scars are less 
prominent because of rapid natural activity during the 
healing process. Fever is reduced or avoided in both 
pulse and temperature, and suppuration is reduced to 
the minimum of natural restorative process. In most 
cases it is avoided altogether. Liability to blood 
poisoning is also lessened; in fact, it is an unheard-of 
complication, when pure metaphysical influence can 
be exerted unobstructed, because all the forces of 
natural mental control of every minute part, organ and 
function of the human system, are brought to bear, 
through the patient's own mind, in superconscious 
activity, to remove every obstruction, establish healthy 
action, and build new tissue with perfect atoms and 
healthy molecules of material. 

Through the influence of mental treatment based 
upon a correct understanding of metaphysical prin- 
ciples, natural sleep is readily established. Appetite, 
digestion and assimilation also are invariably better 
than under the influence of drug medication. The 

sation of pain is always kept at the lowest degree 
possible; frequently, even in severe cases, it is entirely 
removed and avoided. Under favorable circumstances 
the ultimate of these results may be produced. Thev 
arc not in any sense miraculous, but are the per- 
fectly natural results of mental action established 



88 NATURE A RESTORER. 

through clear understanding of the laws of life. 

It is not yet within the scope of mental action to 
set a broken bone of important size, which is so far 
displaced that mechanical appliance is necessary for 
support. In such event, a competent surgeon is 
required to properly reduce the fracture, and to splint 
and ligate, so that the bones cannot leave their natural 
position ; otherwise nature has no power to repair the 
injury. This work is purely mechanical and absolutely 
necessary. In similar cases severe physical injury to 
tissue may require the same aid. The muscular sys- 
tem, however, is more directly under control of mental 
action, and many surprising results in changing mus- 
cular conditions are readily produced by thought- 
influences operating through restorative action. 

The surgeon has the mechanical knowledge 
required to properly set the bones, cleanse, ligate, 
stitch, secure and make outwardly comfortable the 
injured parts, and to see that suitable cleansing and 
mechanical repairing are properly attended to until 
recovery; but that is the extent of his field of action. 
He cannot direct the placing of a single atom in recon- 
struction — he can only make the patient fairly com- 
fortable and wait for Nature to do the rest. 

Now the Nature which restores tissue is Univer- 
sal Mind operating in superconscious activity; her 
laws are the laws of mind and her methods are mental 
actions. Through his knowledge of these methods 



INDOLENCE AND DELUSION. 89 

and laws, so far as yet acquired, the rightly educated 
metaphysician readily reaches the case, removes 
obstructions, and assists in establishing natural action. 
No human power can do more, or do it in any better 
way. The only advancement possible lies in the 
increase of knowledge, and metaphysicians are 
laboring earnestly to add to the present store of 
information in all of these lines. 

Nature's ways are the ways of life, health, strength, 
comfort and happiness. The active force of nature is 
the universal mind, which is always alive and always 
strong in the activity of spirit. Spiritual intelligence 
is the vital principle of every individual mind. 

The Soul of the universe is one magnificent unit 
of essential principle. The Life of the universe is one 
grand whole of active law. By exercise of the divine 
faculty of intelligent comprehension, each individual 
may share all the innate good of both of these 
universal realities. 

To some it seems easier to accept the opinions of 
others than to directly investigate facts. Indolence 
fosters ignorance ; ignorance begets superstition ; 
superstition stultifies every comprehensive faculty, and 
man thereby becomes an automaton, moving only 
when some outer agency works the treadle. In this 
position he is a fit subject for the miracle theory, 
which seems little better than an attempt to evade the 
evidence that nature is continually pushing fresh facts 



90 MENTAL HEALING. 

and deeper truths before the human intellect for recog- 
nition. These facts must be freely investigated by 
each individual or he is sure to be overwhelmed by the 
continual accumulation of evidence of the infinite 
and eternal activities of the universe. 

The elation of self-satisfied opinion proves a 
stumbling-block to many an otherwise brilliant intel- 
lect, and the circle of self-limitation^ which some draw 
in space, temporarily closes the door of the soul to 
the most limpid truths of the universe. No greater 
mistake than this could possibly be made. 

There is no one so learned that he need know no 
more — none so wise that he cannot be advantageously 
instructed. There is no man whose greatness may 
inclose the universe, and none so powerful but that a 
lack of understanding of some ever-active fundamental 
law of his own being may trip him in the midst of his 
triumph. There is space beyond every boundary line, 
and all space is occupied by something real and true. 
The principle of Truth is ubiquitous. 



V. 
THE PROGRESS OF THE AGE. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE PROGRESS OF THE AGE. 
Universal Ether and Telepathy. 

This nineteenth century is a period of marvelous 
unfoldment for the human race. Its onward move- 
ment in mechanical improvements and mathematical 
acquirements, is a magnificent example of the achieve- 
ments which are possible to the human intellect. The 
limit of improvement in mechanical invention has not 
yet been reached, however, in any field of discovery, 
and soil both new and fruitful will be turned for cen- 
turies to come. Neither has the individual mind yet 
reached its limit of comprehension in spiritual matters : 
vastly greater strides in mental development are yet 
to be made during this century. 

The extraordinary progress now being made may, 
perhaps, be considered as a culmination of all the 
enlightened acquirements of the past centuries, in 
preparation for a grand effulgence of illumination on 
the intellectual and spiritual side of human nature dur- 
ing the twentieth century, when progressive changes 
far beyond present comprehension are in store for the 
race. If this be doubted, we should remember that 



04 SIMPLICITY AND POWER. 

our immediate ancestors confidently declared impos- 
sible, improvements which are to-day the easy achieve- 
ments of even a novice, and which any intelligent child 
now recognizes as established facts. 

On the physical plane, this progress is perhaps best 
illustrated by the changes, with constant increase of 
power and efficiency, in methods of artificial lighting 
— from the dismal, smoky pine-knot of earlier centuries 
to the brilliant electric light of to-day. The progress 
made during the last three decades has developed for 
common use lights so many times more powerful than 
any dreamed of in our childhood, that even predictions 
of their possibility would have been derided as the 
vaporings of a visionary. But electricity as a medium 
for lighting is now an established fact, and will soon 
supersede all other methods of lighting, increasing in 
efficiency, and preparing the way to a still higher, 
purer and more effective light in the near future. For 
the end is not yet; the next step in this direction may 
be one in which light many times more effective will 
be produced without sensible combustion, and machines 
vastly more powerful, because more simple in con- 
struction, will run without fuel, while waste, noise 
or danger, to any such degree as now prevails, will 
be considered barbarous. Chemistry is now approach- 
ing that higher field of action and power. 

One interesting feature of this subject is especially 
worthy of notice. Every step forward in the develop- 



PROGRESSIVE LIGHTING. 95 

nient of artificial lighting has been a step up and 
away from a considerable proportion of the gross 
material consumed in producing the inferior light. 

The pine-knot, coarse and crude in material, burned 
with much smoke, shedding little light. 

Xext came the grease lamp in which fat was 
burned through a common wick ; here the material 
used was finer than the pine-knot, yet a better and 
clearer light resulted from its combustion. The tallow 
candle is an example of this method, consuming still 
less crude material and giving a steadier light, while 
spermaceti, more refined, burns brighter than tallow. 

Oil lamps, for burning fish and animal oils, came 
next in order, with a similar proportion of increase 
in power and brilliancy of the light, as the crude mate- 
riality of the medium decreased. Refinement of mate- 
rial gives refinement in result, with corresponding 
increase of effectiveness in all lines of action. 

Following these, in natural progression, we find 
the various mineral oils, kerosene, naphtha and their 
numerous preparations, in which the grossness of 
material has largely disappeared, and a light many 
times more brilliant results, together with the develop- 
ment of powerful explosive qualities. 

The succeeding step is the discovery of illuminat- 
ing gas which is so much finer in substance that to 
three of the five physical senses it is non-existent; for 
it cannot be seen, heard or touched, yet the volume 



96 CONTINUOUS EXPANSION. 

and brilliancy of its light render insignificant all pre- 
vious means of lighting. Refinement increases power. 

Utilization of the light-producing power of elec- 
tricity, however, proves a still greater advancement 
and develops a volume of light, possessing such 
power of penetration, brilliancy, softness and purity 
that we are tempted to exclaim in ecstasy — Now, 
surely, we have reached the ultimate ! But there is 
need of caution lest we fasten ourselves to the 
same stake of limited comprehension based upon 
sense-evidence, which has held others before us in 
bondage. There is no ultimate within human com- 
prehension. There is always a beyond, an above, a 
higher than has yet been reached; and he who 
would recognize the ever-broadening horizon of 
intelligent comprehension, must remain with open 
eyes and freedom of thought, ready to perceive 
the first glimmer of the brighter light beyond his 
present vision. Reality is infinite; the only existing 
limit is that of individual comprehension, and this is 
susceptible of continuous expansion. All permanent 
activity moves in ever-widening circles, and the action 
of every circle displays the endless progression of a 
continuous expansion, which necessitates perpetual 
development. This is real life. 

All progress in the production of artificial light has 
been up from and out of materiality, and away from 
sense-evidence, until now we have a light that is 



INTELLIGENCE AND FORCE. 97 

immeasurably greater than any other, produced appar- 
ently from a physical element that cannot be directly 
recognized by the exercise of any of the five physical 
senses. Always — the greatest degree of power is gen- 
erated from the smallest proportion of crude 
material. Why? 

If molecular matter, which appeals to the phys- 
ical senses, is the only reality of the universe, or even 
more real than its other components, then why is it 
not a fact that the more material the medium for com- 
bustion, the more powerful and better the light pro- 
duced ? Can it be that the less reality there is employed 
the more real will be the result obtained? Or, must 
we consider light and power unreal ? 

The indisputable fact that power increases in 
inverse ratio to the grossness of the material, in every 
power-producing medium, gives rise to the suggestion 
which has been followed out and proved true, — that 
power does not exist in matter itself but that it sub- 
sists in Intelligence, which is the foundation of real 
substance, and a perpetually active force of the uni- 
versal spirit-nature, shared by every individual in pro- 
portion to his intelligent realization of its qualities. 

The less we trust the evidence of the physical 
senses, the less we place dependence upon molecular 
matter, the more receptive we become to the real force 
of spiritual essence which pervades all space, and the 
more we realize actual power. This axiom has been 



98 POWER IS INVISIBLE. 

demonstrated by every important mechanical advance- 
ment made in any of the sciences and in every power- 
producing medium, from the muscular exertion of the 
animal up through all grades of molecular action in 
water, air and steam to that marvelous force, elec- 
tricity, which in the winking of an eye, bores through 
solid masonry or through metal plates without visible 
implement or evident means. 

Steam also is invisible ; and, if the inside of a steam- 
chest be examined without admitting atmosphere, at 
the time when the greatest amount of power is con- 
centrated within, an empty chamber is all the eye 
reports. On mingling with the atmosphere, steam 
reassumes its coarser form, again becoming visible, as 
vapor, but in the change its power as steam is lost. 
Water must become invisible in order that the greater 
power, Steam, may be developed from it. In the same 
way material elements must become intangible in 
order that the greatest of physical powers now recog- 
nized may be demonstrated through electrical action. 

Electricity is the lowest degree of the molecular 
motion of the universal element now recognized as 
Ether, an infinitely fine and volatile fluid which per- 
vades all the space of the material Universe, as the 
atmosphere permeates all parts of this earth. 

In some form or other all the fundamental elements 
of the earth are presented in every substance. All 
possible chemical combinations of elements are not 



THE ILLUSION OF SOLIDITY. 99 

embodied in any separate object, but the fundamentals 
are invariably present in some form. Each coarser 
material is entirely permeated by particles of the ele- 
ment next finer in construction. 

An object which seems to be solid, without either 
particles or interstices, when examined under the 
microscope proves to be all particles and interstices, 
without real solidity or continuous substance. These 
interstices may be permeated by any element composed 
of finer particles. They usually are filled with several 
finer elements, each within the other. 

A piece of granite appears solid, while in fact it is 
exceedingly porous. Sufficient pressure will crowd it 
into smaller limits and force water from its pores. 
This is equally true of every solid and liquid con- 
stituent of the earth. 

The water which fills the pores of the stone is com- 
posed of particles, and the spaces between these are 
occupied with still finer elements of a gaseous nature. 
In this manner air permeates water, the two varying 
in proportion according to temperature and local 
conditions. Higher laws rule each finer element. 

The constituents of the earth are described as 
solids, liquids and gases. Each appears in some degree 
less solid than the next coarser in construction. Each 
is composed of particles separated by spaces which are 
filled with finer elements. There is, therefore, no 
empty space, in the literal meaning of the term. Be 



100 UNIVERSAL INTERACTION. 

the space never so small, there is some element so 
fine in construction, as to find an abiding place within 
its chamber. Neither is there in matter any absolutely 
solid substance. Each element is saturated with every 
finer substance, all uniting in one volatile fluid which 
perpetually changes, never becoming actually fixed in 
either position or condition. All seeming solidity is 
an illusion of the physical senses. The illusion of time 
helps to fix this error in the mind. 

For every material substance there are elements 
finer in construction, the particles of which enter its 
interstices, forcing molecules further apart, until that 
element ceases to exist as an aggregation of particles 
or a molecular mass, whereupon it vanishes from sight. 
No material substance is sufficiently solid to escape 
this universal interaction which is constantly taking 
place in all physical bodies and. elements. It is com- 
monly described as disintegration. 

The diamond is the hardest substance in common 
use ; yet, heated in oxygen gas, it burns to pure car- 
bonic acid, which at ordinary pressure and tempera- 
ture is a colorless, transparent fluid. This change 
becomes possible only through the power of the finer 
molecules of oxygen gas to enter the interstices and 
force apart the particles of carbon which constitute 
the diamond. They yield readily to the right pressure. 

A finer may always be found within the coarser — 
not necessarily embodied in its elemental construction, 



UNDULATION AND VIBRATION. 101 

but occupying the spaces not occupied by the other. 
The finer element passes unobstructed through the 
coarser substance, as persons pass from room to room 
of a building. A communication may be passed 
through the building, either by a messenger, or by 
voice transmitted in atmospheric vibrations. In a cor- 
responding manner, communication may be established 
between intelligent beings through every physical ele- 
ment, by means of the finer vibrations. Knowledge 
of the nature of that element is the only requirement. 
Its modes of undulation and vibration are the physical 
means of communication. 

The recognized solids of the earth are permeated 
with liquids, of which water is the principal constitu- 
ent. All liquids are permeated by air, and by gases 
which are of still finer construction, and gases are 
pervaded by finer bodies of their own nature. 

Higher chemical experiments show that nothing in 
the material world stands separate, independent and 
alone. This proves a unity of construction, even in 
the most changeable planet of the universe. The prin- 
ciple of Unity therein expressed makes every portion 
of the universe an integral part of the whole, there- 
fore each part bears some relation to every other part. 
When this relation is understood, power to deal with 
related elements is developed, which makes the oper- 
ator master of the situation. This fact is forcibly dem- 
onstrated in chemistry, the simplest principles of which 



102 MENTAL HEALING. 

reveal a power over the elements which astonishes 
the novice. At first thought it is incomprehensible. 

Through the principle of unity expressed in the 
permeating and intermingling of all the elements of 
the earth, the intelligent mind gains access to every 
part of the planet, unobstructed by element, action or 
distance. The water with which the stone is saturated 
permits transmission through its body of vibrations 
more delicate than could possibly be carried by the 
mass of the stone itself. The air contained in a body 
of water makes undulations possible which could not 
exist in drops devoid of air. Certain finer forces 
which pervade the atmosphere render simple and easy 
the transmission of light in vibrations too infinitely 
fine to travel by means of particles of atmosphere 
alone. This is a principle of material structure. 

Of all the constituents of the earth the atmosphere 
seems the most nearly universal, for it not only sur- 
rounds the globe, extending many miles into space, but 
it pervades all the space in and between the particles 
of every object and of every element. 

Pure atmosphere is beyond the reach of the senses. 
No image of atmosphere can be impressed upon the 
retina of the eye. Objects are seen to move in the 
wind, therefore we infer that air is in motion, but the 
wind cannot be seen. Neither does atmosphere appeal 
directly to the sense of hearing. The vibrations of 
substances coarser than the atmosphere are transmitted 



THE PROGRESS OF THE AGE. 103 

through it and registered upon the drum of the ear, 
but air itself is not recognized by hearing. Nor does 
it appeal to smell, taste or touch in direct action. 
Varying degrees of the density and proportion of its 
gases are recognized in heat and cold, but these are 
only physical changes in its elemental composition. 
Yet, though it is not directly perceivable through sense- 
action, the atmosphere is a known constituent of the 
earth, which takes constant and active part in the 
development and continuance of the planet, as well as 
of every living thing on it. 

Ether is even more pervasive in character and 
activity than atmosphere. Though further beyond the 
reach of sense-action, still its existence can be proved 
in a number of ways as indisputable as those by which 
the presence of the atmosphere is known. Its modes 
of activity also may be intelligently studied. Ether 
is the principal element of universal objectivity, and, 
perhaps, the fundamental element of material compo- 
sition — Matter itself. Ether unites all bodies of the 
universe in one entire whole of materiality. 

This universal element permeates everything mate- 
rial, filling all interstices, even between the atoms of 
even molecule, however tiny in size or intricate in 
construction. As the heavings of an earthquake are 
at once transmitted in vibrations of the coarser rock- 
strata of the earth, and heavings of the ledge of rock 
are thence conveyed in undulations through the water, 



104 UNIVERSAL ETHER AND TELEPATHY. 

while the beating of the waves and rushing of the 
waters might be still further transmitted through atmos- 
pheric vibrations, and then in turn throb through the 
Ether itself to stir the inner recesses of the senses ; so 
this infinitely fine volatile and elastic element trans- 
mits, in most delicate rhythm, the finest and most sub- 
tile movements engendered by the activity of thought 
in the individual mind, throughout the extent of the 
ethereal fluid. And as a vibration established at one 
end of a telegraphic cable is also felt and understood 
all along the line and as far as the metallic medium 
extends, so the rhythmic movements established in 
the ethereal fluid of the universe will go where 
directed, and may be understood by that intelligence 
which receives the communication. 

This fact is not only the seeming mystery, but on 
the material plane it is the manifestation of the law or 
thought-transference, which is now attracting the 
attention of the best thinkers in the civilized world. 
Its scientific name is Telepathy. 

Telepathy is a universal law, just as simple in oper- 
ation and as easy to comprehend as those laws with 
which we are more familiar ; but being a comparatively 
new idea to modern thinkers it is not so well under- 
stood. This universal Ether is the medium through 
which communication on the material plane always 
has been established in all physical modes of sound, 
sight and feeling. It is in this almost unexplored field 



INTELLIGENCE. 105 

of action that man has, within the last century, begun 
to discover the tremendous power of electricity. When 
the laws which govern Ether are better understood, 
electricity will be comparatively a plaything. 

The power of conscious thought is not limited in 
action, even to the ethereal plane of activity, but 
reaches beyond to higher planes where those powers 
prevail which govern all material movement. 

In and through, between and around every atom 
of the universal ether, filling all so-called space in 
the entire universe, is yet another element, as much 
finer in character, in degree and in action than the 
ether itself, as this element is finer than the rock- 
strata of the earth; so fine in substance and so pure 
in character that it cannot be measured with the instru- 
ments or comprehended by the rules which are 
employed in even the finest material measurements. 
This is the element of Intelligence, the active principle 
of the universe ; the soul of the ethereal universe. 
Conscious thought is the only instrument which can- 
be employed in its manifestation. With tins keen 
instrument, trained to work with the real laws of pure 
Intelligence, the human soul breaks the fetters of sen- 
sation and soars unrestrained to fields of reality, where 
principles and their resulting laws are the only objects 
of perception. Then the soul rightly rules the mind. 

Thought is wholly immaterial, yet a thousand times 
more subtile, rapid, clear and powerful in action than 



106 CONSCIOUSNESS. 

the highest material element or agency ; for thought is 
a spiritual activity, and when rightly controlled 
through knowledge of its laws, it is an agency of, as 
nearly as may be, unlimited resources. 

Without the power of conscious thought the most 
brilliant electric light would be but Stygian darkness 
to any individual, and atomic vibrations would have 
no existence for him. 

Consciousness is a living reality. Divine Con- 
sciousness, in active thought, eternally creates the uni- 
verse — an actual entity of spiritual substance, divine 
in nature and eternal in duration. Physical things are 
objective projections of particular limited phases of 
this thought-activity, and the Material universe is but 
the sum total of this imperfect projection of externally 
conscious thought in the mind of man. 

If Divine Consciousness could terminate its thought 
the physical universe would necessarily disappear, 
because the principles and qualities of things would 
have ceased to be. These are the substance and must 
endure, else nothing could remain. The perpetual 
endurance of the spiritual phases of the Universe arc 
an evidence of their fundamental reality. 

Conscious, intelligent comprehension of Principle 
illumines every depth and banishes every doubt. The 
consciousness that rests upon principle always pos- 
sesses a secure foundation. The "faith" that is born 
of knowledge is fearless. Nothing ever turns it. 



VI. 

INTELLIGENCE AND SENSATION 



CHAPTER VI. 

INTELLIGENCE AND SENSATION. 
The Office of the Senses. 

Spiritual Intelligence is the active force of the 
Universe. It is projected in thought-activity, reflected 
in the atomic action of ether, inverted in the molecu- 
lar dispersion of gases, and fully materialized in crude 
matter recognizable through sense-evidence. 

The vital activity of every individual is a living, 
spiritual essence of real Being — an element of pure 
intelligence, capable of thinking and knowing. 
Through certain modes of reflected action, the phys- 
ical proceeds from, and is governed by, spiritual activ- 
ities ; therefore, knowledge of the spiritual side of 
human nature gives a comprehensive understanding 
of the physical, also. But knowledge based entirely 
upon physical evidence is confined to that plane alone 
for action, and gives information only by self-limited 
sense-evidence. 

The action of the physical senses is gauged entirely 
for the material plane of life and they report only the 
physical phenomena which they are fitted to measure, 
leaving the investigator destitute of understanding of 

109 



110 THE LIMITATIONS OF SENSE. 

that real part of all nature which is above and beyond 
their realm, and out of reach of their powers. 

The evidence of the physical senses is relative, 
only, and cannot be relied upon for accurate report on 
any subject. Their natural office is to report the pres- 
ence of the manifold forms of physical phenomena 
which successively result from the varieties of motion 
prevalent among universal activities. Beyond this they 
are entirely inoperative and practically useless. 

No one can think solely through exercise of any 
of the five senses. With these instruments evidence 
of the presence of physical things can be gained 
in varying degrees of intensity, but Ideas pass 
unrecognized. This must necessarily be so. 

Power to think intelligently on a given subject 
depends upon recognition of the principles involved in 
the Ideas upon which that subject is founded. Even 
the power to "sense" the presence of an object depends 
upon some degree of such recognition ; because sensa- 
tion depends upon Consciousness and the activities of 
consciousness are expressed through thought. With- 
out comprehension of principles there can be no defi- 
nite thought-action, and without thought there is no 
sensation. Without sensation the object would pass 
unrecognized under all circumstances. 

Sensation means recognition of the presence of 
material objects; its common name is feeling. On the 
physical plane the sense of feeling has five outward 



PRINCIPLES UNDERLIE THINGS. Ill 

modes of action, namely : hearing — which is feeling 
the vibrations of the atmosphere ; seeing — which is 
feeling the ethereal vibrations of light; smelling and 
tasting — which are modes of feeling the molecular 
vibrations spoken of as flavors and odors; and touch- 
ing, commonly recognized as feeling, which is a con- 
sciousness of resistance of objects or elements. 

While exercising sense faculties, physical phenom- 
ena are recognized. In right process of thought it is 
known that these appear before us only because of the 
existence of the eternal Principles of Reality, which 
subsist back of all phenomena. This knowledge 
enables man to reason calmly back from physical phe- 
nomena to the underlying metaphysical facts, where 
he gains a substantial foothold in the understanding 
of principles which are above sensations. 

Without these principles, always subsisting in 
the spiritual realm, there could not possibly 
be any sensation of any kind, degree or 
quality. It is because of the absolute and 
perpetual necessity for the presence of these sub- 
sisting principles, that a knowledge of them becomes 
essential to progress. 

Principles underlie all objective things; "Quali- 
ties are the only real parts of things." If an object 
lose its qualities, only a lifeless shell remains, which 
must speedily disintegrate. Each quality is a direct 
expression of the Principle on which that thing was 



112 THE OFFICE OF THE SENSES. 

constructed. Mathematical character is the form of 
its existence, while the active principle of the object 
is the spirit of its being. Without quality, principle 
and character, an object can have neither being nor 
existence on any plane of action. 

No mathematical principle is involved in any act 
of direct sensation ; therefore, no mathematical con- 
clusion can be arrived at through the senses, alone. 

The physical senses were never intended to be used 
as philosophical instruments. Their office is solely to 
report the presence of objective things. Subjective 
Principles and Ideas are above their plane of action 
and cannot be defined by them. 

Accurate description of their qualifications and 
characteristics, as well as a correct measurement 
of the objects themselves, always involves a just 
exercise of the higher faculty, reason, which, because 
it is a faculty of the spiritual intelligence, can appre- 
ciate qualities as well as sizes, thus accurately deter- 
mining the facts of existence embodied in any object. 
This, the external senses cannot do; therefore, evi- 
dence given by them invariably falls short of necessary 
data for accurate information, and should not be 
trusted as means to a final conclusion. 

The faculty of vision, if accurately tested, will 
illustrate this shortcoming. The remark is frequently 
heard, ''What I see I can believe"; and the average 
person is quite indignant if doubt of his ability to see 



SEXSE EVIDENCE REVERSED. 113 

things as they are is expressed. Yet it is an indisputable 
fact that we never see anything as it really is in the 
material universe; neither do any two persons see the 
same thing exactly alike. 

You do not know how another person sees 
an object — you only know how the object appears 
to you ; that is, you know your own interpretation 
of your own vision, but not any other person's inter- 
pretation of his vision. Color, form, dimension, dis- 
tance, solidity — all vary in some degree with every 
observer; sometimes radical differences occur. 

A cambric needle appears to be a tiny bit of very 
smooth and highly polished steel, with an absolute 
point, of no dimensions. The sense of feeling corrob- 
orates the evidence of sight, because the needle feels 
absolutely smooth, and the sharpness of a point is 
plainly felt and seems to be present; but put the needle 
under a microscope and the illusion vanishes. The 
seeming point is revealed as a clumsy, blunt or ragged 
end, with no suggestion of sharpness ; the seemingly 
bright, polished surface is seen to be rough and luster- 
'ess. There is nothing present to even suggest what 
the eye seemed to see before the microscope disclosed 
the truth about it. The evidence is all reversed. 

In which instance is vision to be regarded as cor- 
rect?' Is the piece of steel as vision reports it, or as 
the microscope shows it to be? Is it the office of the 
microscope to change right impressions of things to 



114 INTELLIGENCE AND SENSATION. 

those which arc wrong? Is it not, rather, to correct 
the coarseness of natural vision and to bring objects 
before the understanding in a degree nearer to their 
true state? Do the lenses of the microscope enlarge 
the object? Do they not, rather, multiply the power 
of vision to the extent that more of the real nature of 
the object is recognized? 

The fact is, the microscope enables the observer 
to come in closer contact with the true qualities of the 
object and to reason better concerning what is seen, 
and thus the inference drawn from sense-evidence 
becomes more accurate. 

In the needle, the qualities of sharpness, smooth- 
ness and luster are not present as realities of the 
molecular construction of the article, but as illusions 
of the sense of sight. This illusion exists because of 
inability to see the particles composing the object, the 
eye as an instrument being proportionately so coarse 
that it cannot come in effective contact with them. 
Vision acute enough to enable one to see the atoms 
comprising the steel would render the observer power- 
less, so far as vision is concerned, to recognize the 
needle itself, or to know its usefulness. 

Already the Microscope has opened the door to an 
entirely new world, of the most marvelous construc- 
tion, too fine to be apprehended through external 
sense ; but for the discovery of this mathematical 
instrument it would still remain unrecognized. If the 



QUALITIES. 115 

power of lenses be increased, there will be discov- 
ered yet other and more marvelous worlds of life- 
activities on every hand, in the midst of what now 
scans to be the entire creation. Such are possible. 

Various illustrations, similar in character in regard 
to the power and scope of the senses, may be brought 
forward by any thinker. And these prove the senses 
to be instruments incapable of estimating measure- 
ments accurately. Their evidence must be examined. 

When qualities are observed through the senses, 
they are interpreted relative to other qualities, similar 
in character. Objects are either large or small, long 
or short, wide or narrow, hard or soft, heavy or light ; 
in temperature, hot or cold; in color, light or dark; 
in sensation, acute or dull; and qualities are either 
good or bad, even right or wrong, according to com- 
parison with other objects or qualities. Neither these 
nor any real characteristics of objects can be definitely 
determined by sense-power. 

The evidence of the senses is susceptible of cor- 
rection by man himself; therefore, sense-power is not 
man's highest power, because the most powerful can- 
not be over-powered — the highest cannot be corrected. 

Most people suppose they believe the evidence of 
their senses, yet every intelligent thinker is constantly 
reasoning beyond their pale. The intelligent mechanic 
never trusts sense-evidence exclusively, but has an 
instrument by which to determine everv measurement. 



116 MISPLACED CONFIDENCE. 

Frequently, as in the case of some finely constructed 
astronomical instruments, a second instrument is 
required to register and interpret the information given 
through the first, for which purpose the senses are 
known to be inadequate. 

In some problems mathematical calculation and 
processes of reasoning are necessary in order to arrive 
at a correct interpretation of measurements. In fact, 
no true mathematician ever trusts his senses further 
than to read the coarsest of characters and to furnish 
crude material with which to begin investigation. 
Any degree of confidence beyond this leads to errone- 
ous conclusions and corresponding disaster. 

Sensation reports the presence of a phenomenon. 
What it really is; what are its dimensions, its char- 
acter, its qualities ; what principles are involved in its 
formation; what is its nature, object and scope — all 
these are entirely beyond the power of sensation to 
determine, and no accurate information whatever in 
regard to them can be gained by direct action of the 
senses. Every point of description is a matter of infer- 
ence drawn by the observer; and wrong inference is 
the result of faulty reasoning with regard to the 
appearance. Through accurate reasoning wrong evi- 
dence may be corrected and the truth learned concern- 
ing that object. The reversal of thought is important 
in this consideration. 

This is a vital point in considering the question of 



SENSE UNRELIABLE. 117 

the nature and cause of sickness, because the reported 
evidence of the sense of feeling is involved in every 
case. This sense is no more reliable than any of the 
others. Its evidence requires the equalizing influence 
of reason, in order that the real condition underlying 
the feeling, may be correctly interpreted. 

Feeling gives evidence only with regard to exter- 
nal molecular vibrations. The real character of the 
sickness depends upon inner activities beyond the scope 
of this sense. To trust its evidence absolutely would 
be, in every instance, to draw wrong conclusions 
which in treatment might lead to unhappy results. 

Through the physical senses alone no one can 
comprehend a mathematical principle or solve even 
the simplest problem in life. 

The senses deal with externals only, while some 
faculty within the individual goes both deeper and 
higher : and directly perceives the principles that lie 
back of the mind's grouping of objects. 

Comprehensive understanding of principle is a 
faculty which every sane human being possesses. 
Animals lack this, though they have all the physical 
sense-faculties, sometimes even to a greater degree of 
acuteness than man. In the dog or in the weasel the 
sense of smell is more acute than in man. The eagle 
has power to gaze on the midday sun. Many varieties 
of insects and animals see both by night and by day; 
thus what we call darkness becomes non-existent 



US ANIMALS THINK. 

to them. All depends upon the mind's estimate of 
the action involved. 

Animals, also, have power to think—to reason 
about things and objects on the plane of their 
own life, to recognize facts of experience and 
results of action, with, in some instances, marked 
exercise of memory; but we are not certain 
that animals have developed the faculty of 
intelligent comprehension of principle. This is 
a spiritual faculty of divine origin belonging 
to the higher and purer side of human nature, above 
the animal intelligence and beyond the sense-plane, but 
capable of being understood and intelligently employed 
for a purpose. Knowledge acquired through conscious 
exercise of this natural faculty conveys power for 
action which is unattainable by the development of 
the physical, the sensuous, or even the intellectual, 
alone. The innate good of power thus generated can 
be recognized only through direct comprehension of 
the fundamental principles, and this comes only 
through spiritual consciousness. 

Spiritual faculties can be exercised only through 
pure motive and for a good purpose, because they 
are absolutely pure in nature, and purity can 
never defile. The intellect, when perverted by 
self-desire on the sense-plane, may start a wrong 
action and state a false premise-; but spiritual 
understanding can neither make the statement 



THE PURITY OF PRINCIPLE. 119 

nor believe it to be true. Spiritual com- 
prehension either takes no part in the transaction, as 
when an error is innocently committed, or, through 
the inspired voice of conscience, protests against the 
outrage when a wrong act is decided upon for a wilful 
purpose of the sense-nature. 

The native purity of spiritual principle remains 
unchanged, however, and eventually compels the 
righting of each wrongful act, committed by the 
limited mind, in its ignorance. 

The natural retribution of outraged principle 
begins to take effect within the mind of him who fails 
to follow the principles comprehended, as soon as the 
act is committed ; the corresponding result is only 
a matter of time unless the right action be speedily 
re-established. This action is universal. 

The slowness of the change or process may 
blind one's eyes for a while, but principle cannot 
be permanently transgressed : it is the eternal activity 
of the universe and eventually must be complied with 
by every one. Failure to comply with principle, for any 
reason whatever, either intentional or accidental, means 
existence, for the time of transgression, outside the 
perpetual harmony of its native purity. On the earth- 
plane, sorrow, sickness and untimely death follow con- 
tinuance of erroneous action, to all classes alike 
Neither saint nor sinner can claim favor of the law. 

Opinion is equally inoperative here, as in the work- 



120 MENTAL HEALING. 

ing of any mathematical problem — nothing short of 
complete recognition of the principle involved, and 
absolute compliance with it, can solve any problem. 
But with this degree of compliance the right solution 
is inevitable. A clear understanding of principles 
renders both problem and difficulty non-existent to 
that individual. 

Truth is no respecter of persons. 

The facts of Absolute Truth are unconditional. 



VII. 
MENTAL ACTION 



CHAPTER VII. 

MENTAL ACTION. 

The Process of Thought. 

The Theory of Metaphysical Healing presents 
three distinct statements : 

(a) Mind antedates and is superior to body. 

(b) Each mind governs its own body through 
definite laws of mental action. 

(c) By certain erroneous lines of thought, condi- 
tions of disease are generated, which may be removed 
by establishing different modes of action. 

These statements differ somewhat from those gen- 
erally entertained in regard to the nature, the prob- 
able causes and possible cures of sickness, and in order 
to understand them fully it will be necessary to exam- 
ine the thinking processes of the mind. 

What is the process of thought? How does mind 
think? These are questions which invariably arise at 
the outset of investigation of this subject. They are 
not difficult to answer, if certain facts concerning 
thought are taken into consideration. 

Thought is mental action. The intelligent indi- 
vidual thinks. Conscious activity of the mental facul- 

123 



124 PRINCIPLE AND IDEA. 

ties results in the formation of a thought-image in 
mind. The individual has intelligently conceived 
something ; that something is an Idea. 

Ideas are entities composed of spiritual substance. 
These are spiritual things, In substance, they are real ; 
in activity, living ; in endurance, eternal. . Each is a 
permanent reality. Living Principle is the essence of 
every true Idea. 

Thought is the process of forming among the con- 
scious activities of mind, a mental image or picture 
of the Idea which at that moment is the object of con- 
sciousness. There is no other method or means of 
thought and no different thought-activity. The men- 
tal process of conscious thought as exercised on the 
material plane consists in clearly seeing and intelli- 
gently understanding the form, shape, size, color, 
qualities and other characteristics of things or objects, 
the corresponding ideas of which already exist in uni- 
versal mind, on the spiritual plane of Being. The 
detail of the process is mental ; but the final intelligent 
comprehension is a spiritual act of high degree, in 
which physical sense takes no part. Spiritually the 
individual recognizes ideas, but mentally he only deals 
with things, and sensuously with objects. 

A true thought is an idea individually recognized. 
Ideas are founded upon fundamental principles of 
truth. To become conscious of a real idea is to recog- 
nize a fundamental truth — a permanent principle. 



MENTAL PICTURES. 125 

When the character and quality of an idea are fully 
recognized, a picture of that idea is instantaneously 
impressed upon the living substance of mind. Con- 
scious recognition of the idea, and impression of the 
picture, are simultaneous in action. The idea is a per- 
manent, unchanging reality, perfect in every detail. 
The mental picture will correspond exactly to the inter- 
pretation of the idea. It may be either perfect or 
imperfect, complete or incomplete, correct or incorrect, 
true or false, according to the quality of the thought. 
Imperfection in the thought, however, does not change 
the nature of the idea — it affects only the thinker, in 
his relation to that idea. 

Through exercise of true thought the real Idea is 
recognized in its native purity and perfection. In this 
process the thinker, acting through pure intelligence, 
mounts upward to the spiritual plane and recognizes 
truth itself. Through incorrect thought one sees 
darkly, interprets imperfectly, and forms a temporary 
picture correspondingly inaccurate, based upon an 
appearance which does not correspond to any real idea. 
Yielding to the illusions of sense, man withdraws from 
the uplifting influence of intelligence and retrogrades 
to the material plane where mere appearances seem 
real and illusions becloud the intellect. 

This form of thought possesses no principle or real 
quality, has therefore no permanence and cannot 
endure. It is a seeming, which passes away — a falsity; 



126 THE PROCESS OF THOUGHT. 

an illusion. It seems to possess power, but the seem- 
ing exists on the sense-plane only, and always bears 
relation to some object of sense-recognition. It is a 
sensation rather than a thought. 

In either act of thought, mind forms a picture 
which is a copy of its own comprehension of the sub- 
ject. Clearness in the picture depends upon the purity 
with which the qualities of the Idea are recognized. 

Words do not necessarily bear direct relation either 
to ideas or to thoughts; at best they are imperfect, 
incomplete, only crude symbols of thoughts, and fre- 
quently inadequate to express the idea conceived. 

Mind recognizes Ideas, thinks about them by form- 
ing mental pictures, and explains what it thinks in 
words. To think, therefore, is to recognize an idea; 
and to think rightly is to form in mind a correct pic- 
ture of the idea, intelligently comprehending all its 
subjective details. If the idea is not consciously recog- 
nized, no mental picture is formed, in which case 
there can be no mental action, no thought on that sub- 
ject, and no information gained. 

True knowledge cannot be acquired in conscious 
thought on the plane of this life, without the purely 
mental act of picturing in mind the qualifications of 
some real, subjective idea; this act cannot take place 
without spiritual comprehension of the principles 
involved in that idea, and of their activities. 

To one familiar with the English language the 



THE WORD AND THE IDEA. 127 

sound of the word apple instantly arouses in mind a 
more or less complete and perfect picture of that fruit. 
Each mind, however,, adds to its first impression of the 
idea the detailed characteristics of size, color, flavor, 
etc., with which previous experience in conscious recog- 
nition of apples has made it familiar. If several per- 
sons hear the word apple, each, perhaps, sees in mind 
somewhat different characteristics of the idea : — to 
one, the apple seems red, to another yellow, while still 
another thinks of it as variegated in color, large or 
small, sweet or sour, according to his previous concep- 
tions. Though the correct idea, apple, be aroused in 
the mind of each by hearing the same sound, yet each 
mind, in its own thinking process, is at work supplying 
with lightning rapidity those qualifications which go 
to make up some special kind of apple. This detailed 
thought-process does not take place, however, unless 
the idea is aroused in consciousness, and a mental pic- 
ture of the idea enters the activity of that mind, If 
no idea is comprehended no picture is seen, and no con- 
scious thought occurs. Xo activity is present. 

Suppose the word apple to be spoken for the first 
time in the hearing of one unacquainted with the Eng- 
lish language. It makes no conscious impression upon 
his mind; therefore, it arouses no conscious thought 
with reference to any object. lie does not recognize 
the word as associated with any idea. To him it is 
not even a word, but only a meaningless disturbance of 



128 IDEAS, PICTURES AND SENSATIONS. 

atmospheric vibrations. No idea is aroused in his 
intelligent understanding by the sound vibration, there- 
fore he sees no mental picture. But speak the word 
which, in his native tongue, is associated with that 
idea, and he will instantly proceed in conscious thought 
to picture the idea with every quality of which he had 
previously gained an understanding. 

Mind thinks, both by seeing mental pictures of 
ideas previously comprehended, and by consciously 
picturing the ideas that are newly acquired. 

True mental pictures are correct copies of ideas. 
If the ideas are clearly comprehended the pictures will 
be rightly interpreted. Ideas are seen directly through 
the sense of spiritual perception, and comprehended 
through the faculty of spiritual understanding. The 
physical senses are not essential to this process — 
indeed, they are entirely inadequate for any degree of 
its activity. Intelligence and sensation are opposite 
in character as well as in every element. 

Ideas are spiritual. Pictures are mental and sensa- 
tions are sensuous, while objective things are physical, 
both in character and construction. 

The process of understanding an idea is a purely 
spiritual act, performed through a clear comprehension 
of the principles upon which that idea is founded. 
Intelligence is the instrument employed in the act. 

The process of apprehending, interpreting and 
imaging a correct understanding of spiritual ideas, is 



PSYCHIC ACTION. 129 

metaphysical, and the spiritual intellect is the active 
instrument. Intellect apprehends, reason interprets 
and imagination images, or pictures in mind, the degree 
of intelligent comprehension of the idea which is under 
examination. Then the observer may understand. 

Seeing mental pictures held in other minds, without 
conscious effort to interpret or understand on the part 
of the thinker, is psychic action; the Imaging Faculty 
abnormally exercised through inverted reflection of the 
original image, is the instrument employed in psychic 
action. In the process of reflection every image is 
inverted ; therefore, the information gained through 
psychic process will be misleading, unless interpreted 
through intelligence by comparison with the true idea. 

The process of examining objective things is sensu- 
ous, and sensation is the instrument employed. Sen- 
sation is limited in power, to the examination of the 
coarsest of physical phenomena, and never gives accu- 
rate information concerning the qualities and character 
of any element. Reality is entirely beyond its pale, 
and never seems to have existence while the evidences 
of sensation are relied upon in investigation. 

If the individual exercise no intellectual faculty 
above the sense-plane, he remains, in action, a mere 
animal ; for even the brute creation shares with him 
every kind and every degree of power contained in 
the five senses. But when he rises a step higher, thus 
becoming open to the influence of pictures of better 



130 ANIMALS ARE PSYCHIC. 

things, active in thinking minds, he gains an impetus 
upward, through right use of the Imagination. He 
then begins to think and to reason on a higher plane, 
which leads to deeper understanding. Even in psychic 
action the individual is not entirely above the animal 
plane, and his impulses require careful attention. 

Intelligent animals have the faculty of see- 
ing mental pictures, and are susceptible to similar 
influence in either direction, both from their own kind 
and from the minds of men. The intelligent dog- 
knows the thought of his master, and frequently acts 
on his suggestion without a word or any outward sign. 
The picture in the mind of his master is a law unto 
him. The average horse of good spirit knows imme- 
diately if the driver lacks self-confidence (sometimes 
before he is seen), and is quick to take advantage of 
it. Animals seldom attack one who remains firm and 
absolutely fearless, particularly if a thought of uni- 
versal sympathy with, and appreciation of, the good 
qualities inhering in all forms of life be extended to 
each in reasonable proportion. This is the secret of 
control of the beast by the mind of man. 

The power of the human eye to subdue passion in 
the savage beast is universally recognized, though 
not generally understood. The human mind, acting 
through its thought-picture which is projected out- 
ward from the eye, in reflection of -the image of 
thought, is the force which, with the irresistible power 



PICTURES OF IDEAS. 131 

of spiritual intelligence, overpowers the brute impulse 
in the beast. If perfectly exercised through pure intel- 
ligence, it would conquer in every instance. Intelli- 
gence is greater than animal impulse, in either man or 
beast, and mind is more powerful than any form of 
matter. This is always entirely true. 

If properly guarded and rightly exercised, psychic 
development may be a means of at least humanizing 
the animal tendencies in man, eventually leading him 
to give due attention to his higher faculties. 

Metaphysical understanding leads one to cease 
depending on the influence of pictures reflected from 
the minds of others, and to think for himself — to form 
his own mental pictures, so far as possible, through 
independent, conscious thought regarding the real 
ideas with which he comes in contact. 

Reasoning upward from first impressions of ideas, 
first by psychic help from minds that have consciously 
thought in advance of us, and second, through meta- 
physical reasoning, with regard to powers, causes and 
laws, we learn to form pictures of ideas by thought- 
action ; we receive, digest and assimilate facts with 
which sensation alone never can bring us face to face; 
we gain understanding of principles, and spiritually 
see real ideas. Such growth in understanding may be 
attained through right exercise of the mental faculties. 

Through conscious thought, by means of its imag- 
ing faculty, Mind is under the guidance and control 



132 IMAGINATION. 

of intelligent understanding, from which it receives 
its true impulses. These can never mislead the thinker. 

Mind images — pictures ideas, by means of the 
Imagination. When understood in its true sense, 
imagination becomes the most powerful instrument of 
the mind. Indeed, it is the most wonderful of all 
human instruments. It is the intelligent activity of 
the spiritual side of human nature, and the only faculty 
through which the thinker can gain pure understand- 
ing of any subject. It is the only faculty of conscious, 
intellectual action, and the only instrument with which 
principles may be examined. It is the least under- 
stood, because least studied, being considered by super- 
ficial thinkers a distorted rather than a real faculty. 

The Imagination, using the word in its true sense, 
is of first importance, and should be thoroughly mas- 
tered by every individual. When rightly used it will 
prove the most efficient instrument for analyzing the 
evidence of the physical senses, and deducing actual 
facts from the evidences presented. Then principles 
will be recognized and laws discovered, giving knowl- 
edge of life as it was intended to be, and as it really 
is, on the spiritual plane of existence; also as it will 
be on the mental plane when the imaging faculty of 
mind is thoroughly understood. Healthy conditions 
and harmonious sensations in physical life are inevit- 
able results of the acquirements of this knowledge. 

Imagination is the active instrument of that invis- 



THE PROCESS OF THOUGHT. 133 

ible but real operator, the spiritual Individual who acts 
through understanding of principles. If not allured 
into wrong channels through the seemingly accurate 
evidence of the physical senses, it will help to rightly 
interpret the activities of real life as expressed in the 
fundamental principles of human existence on all 
planes — physical, mental and spiritual. 

The Spiritual is a permanent plane of real intel- 
ligent principle. The pure Substance. 

The Mental is a progressive plane of actual intel- 
lectual comprehension. A Reflection of the substance. 

The Physical is a temporary and constantly chang- 
ing plane of seeming, material, reflection. Shadow. 

Qn the physical plane the thinker's mental inter- 
pretations of the spiritual facts of eternal reality are 
outwardly re-enacted in a material copy of the thought. 

The steps in the process may be classified as 
follows : 

(a) The fundamental Principles which are 
involved. Substantial Realities. 

(b) The Idea which is founded upon those 
principles. Ideality is the act. 

(c) Spiritual comprehension of the idea, including 
an understanding of its principles. Consciousness. 

((\) The mental Image of that particular com- 
prehension of the idea. Mentation. 

(a) The objective copy in Physical element of that 
mental image. Sensuous observation. 



134 MENTAL HEALING. 

Spiritual principles are the real entities of the uni- 
verse. Spiritual ideas are the developed activities 
of those principles. Metaphysical thought-concepts of 
those ideas and principles are the active realities 
of human existence. These concepts vary in degree of 
accuracy according to conscious recognition by 
each individual mind; therefore, human experience 
varies in accordance with the changing of the mental 
pictures formed during the experience of each one. 

Intelligence recognizes spiritual activities. 

Imagination pictures (images) the recognition. 

Intellect interprets the mental picture. 

Reason determines its qualities and characteristics. 

Thought brings all together in conscious compre- 
hension of the entire subject as a conception. 

Thought is a process of reason, exercised through 
intellectual interpretation of the mental pictures 
reflecting from spiritual ideas, through consciousness. 

Thought itself is an active power, capable of intel- 
ligent operation on any subject; imagination is the 
living instrument of its action. 



VIII. 

THE PHYSICAL REFLECTION OF 
THOUGHT. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE PHYSICAL REFLECTION OF THOUGHT. 
Bodily Expression. 

The personal body is a physical copy of the indi- 
vidual mind, and in some part of its construction 
expresses its every thought. 

Each function of individual thought has an exact 
correspondence in some function of the physical body, 
which instantly responds to every thought in its own 
domain. Corresponding to every mental function there 
is a physical organ which is its reflected counterpart. 

Every thought-picture that is formed in mind is 
accurately registered in the corresponding part of 
that man's body, whether recognized or not. 

Mental pictures react by direct reflection through 
the atoms and molecules of the ganglia, which com- 
prise the ganglionic or sympathetic nervous system. 
The physical reflection will be like the mental act from 
which it reflects. It may be tempered somewhat 
by the qualities of the reflecting medium, but it 
never can be radically different in character. 

The form, color and other characteristics of the 

137 



138 THOUGHT AND BODY. 

thought-picture will strictly accord with the qualities 
of the ideas examined, provided those ideas are rightly 
comprehended by the observer. Personal desires and 
intentions will have no weight against this law regard- 
ing all mental activity. 

Both the idea and the principle back of it 
are eternally perfect. Concepts of the idea and reali- 
zations of the principle may vary from perfection down 
to utter failure, and a mental picture will be formed 
exactly like the concept, whether it be right or wrong. 
This picture registers in the physical system, repro- 
ducing its activities in the bodily action. In this man- 
ner the activities of all the organs of the body 
constantly change according to the variations of 
the mental action involved in the transaction. 

The thought is the real thing. The body is a pro- 
jected copy of that thing in physical element. 

In sensation, only the physical is recognized. 
Through intelligence, the thought itself is accessible. 

Every individual thinks either subconsciously or 
superconsciously, on planes of mental activity both 
beneath and above that of his every-day conscious 
thinking about the things of this life. Such mental 
activity is not usually recognized, because the plane 
of conscious thought is the only distinctly apparent 
field of mental action. On the conscious plane dis- 
ease is generated by any unnatural action, and tissue 
is thereby destroyed. In higher thought, healthy 



CURATIVE THOUGHT. 139 

action takes place and tissue is reconstructed from the 
natural ingredients contained in food, air and light. 

In any degree of consciousness the act of each 
mind is registered on its own body, in some form or 
other, producing a result which reflects the qualities 
of the mental act. For the time being the physical and 
the mental action will be alike. 

To thoroughly rid the system of wrong physical 
action, reflected from similar mental activity, it is 
necessary to strike at the root of the difficulty, chang- 
ing the character of the action in that mind. When 
the harmful influence is dispelled, a corresponding 
change takes place in the body, by natural law, with- 
out conscious effort, and as a necessary consequence 
of the true relation which always exists between mind 
and body. The trouble then disappears and healthy 
activity is established in the physical system. This 
renews the action of the heart and other vital organs, 
cleansing the blood and purifying the entire system; 
while the individual mind working through natural, 
harmonious laws, on the superconscious plane, restores 
the life of each molecule and builds new tissue, on the 
perfect model of that individual's natural system, as 
originally constructed on ideas of fundamental health 
and wholeness, and intended for general enjoyment. 

As before stated, every mental activity results in a 
similar kind and quality of activity in the correspond- 
ing part of that mind's body. The mental image of 



140 HARMONY AND HEALTH. 

that activity may also be transferred to other minds 
through reflection of the picture, in which event the 
corresponding action may be re-enacted in both the 
mind and the body of the one who thus absorbs the 
action from the mind which thinks it. 

These are fundamental principles regarding mental 
action in its relation to the conditions of the human 
body. If once understood, they give an insight into 
the affairs of human experience, impossible to obtain 
through any amount of knowledge otherwise acquired. 

When these facts are comprehended it will readily 
be seen that a realization of the true qualities of the 
fundamental idea, Harmony, must result in a mental 
picture conforming to harmonious activity; also, that 
the reflected copy of that mental action must inevitably 
have a harmonious tendency. If the idea be perfectly 
conceived, the thought will reflect in harmonious action 
through the nervous system, producing a natural con- 
dition in the physical body. 

In harmonious activity, nature builds and retains 
a healthy body. If obstructions to healthy action be 
present they must, of course, be removed through 
right thought, after which the harmonious result will 
be inevitable; nothing can prevent it. On the other 
hand, if the mental picture be distorted or erroneous, 
with no enduring Idea for a fundamental principle, 
its temporary reflection on the body will also be dis- 
torted, resulting in corresponding degrees of discord. 



THE BODY A MACHINE. 141 

Consequently, sickness instead of health will ensue, 
either to that thinker or to some one in immediate 
mental contact who may absorb the disturbing influ- 
ence through reflection of the mental Image. Many 
forms of disease are developed in this manner and 
transmitted between human beings of all ages and con- 
ditions, because of ignorance of the fundamental laws 
of life and of the natural course of mental action. 
Most epidemics are generated in this field of errone- 
ous and unnecessary mental action. Knowledge of 
certain laws renders such influence inoperative, 
for any individual, and also imparts power to 
relieve others of their troublesome ailments. 

The human body is a marvelously intricate 
machine ; yet in every respect it is incalculably sur- 
passed by the thinking mind, which is infinitely more 
intricate in constitution, more subtile in action, broader 
in scope, and greater in power and endurance. 

The action of mind and body together may be 
illustrated materially by the action of a steam-boiler, 
and its accompanying machinery. The machine has 
many wheels, valves, pistons, shafts, tubes and other 
parts, all dependent upon and regulated in their 
motions by the power which proceeds from the steam- 
chest. They are utterly useless without the applica- 
tion of this power. The steam-chest, in turn, is :i 
usel' ] without an influx of energy in the shape 

of compressed steam admitted to it from the boiler, 



142 THE STEAM BOILER. 

where the steam is generated from water by means 
of heat, for the purpose of obtaining force for use. 

When the boiler is constructed on scientific prin- 
ciples of exactness, filled with pure water, and the right 
amount of fuel supplied for combustion, steam is 
produced, generating power which, when admitted to 
the steam-chest in suitable quantity, supplies the 
machine with energy sufficient to propel every part in 
harmonious action, suited to the nature of the machine. 

Suppose now that the engineer, finding the machine 
going at too high a rate of speed, places obstructions 
in the gearing and machinery to block the wheels and 
thus check speed. It is clear that the result will be dis- 
astrous. Or suppose that he recognizes only the 
machine with its objective mechanism, and, believing 
the steam-chest to be the motive power, attempts 
to reduce the speed of the engine by operating upon 
the steam-chest itself, — again he will only injure the 
machine. The only scientific way is to reduce the 
pressure of steam from the boiler, upon which 
the entire machine gradually slows down to a proper 
rate of speed without any attempt on the part of the 
engineer to act directly on the machine itself or 
on any of its parts. Scotching its wheels results 
only in destruction. 

The correspondence existing between the mech- 
anism of the engine, with its power-producing forces, 
and the machinery of man's physical body controlled 



MEDICAL SCIENCE MAKES MISTAKES. 143 

by mind, is remarkably clear. Both of the mistakes 
just enumerated as possible by injudicious management 
of the mechanical engine, are repeatedly made, under 
the name of Science, in attempts to control the organs 
and parts of the human machine by direct influence 
upon each part, instead of by appeal to the source of 
its energy — the thinking mind — where its every mode 
of action is established, and whence continuance or 
change must originate, in order to be effective. 

The elements and parts involved in the construc- 
tion and operation of a steam engine are as follows : 

1. Boiler. 

2. Water. 

3. Combustion. 

4. Heat. 

5. Steam. 

6. Steam-chest. 

7. Machinery. 

If these words be described in terms which explain 
their character, each one represents a permanent idea 
of especial importance in the universe. The word can 
not be adequately defined without expressing the idea 
which it really represents. The correspondence is 
complete and its action perfect. 

The Boiler is the active seat of the immediate devel- 
opment of Energy, and represents the intention or 
Purpose of the inventor. 

Water is the Substance from which steam is 



144 CORRESPONDING IDEAS. 

evolved by expansion, under the action of heat. 
Combustion liberates the latent heat which is stored 
and concentrated in the fuel, thereby developing 
Action, for the natural expression of force. 

Heat transfers its activity to the water and gen- 
erates steam; while the Steam confined in the Steam- 
chest ever pushes its way outward in all directions, in 
a natural effort to break its bonds and express its 
energy in effective action. 

In the Steam-chest, Energy is concentrated with 
which to propel the machine, and Concentration 
describes both its function and its character. 

The pistons, rods, wheels and other parts of the 
machinery constitute a machine, which represents 
the idea Construction. All parts mutually interact. 

The elements, therefore, involved in the construc- 
tion and operation of every steam engine are as 
follows : 

Objective. Subjective. 

Boiler, representing Purpose. 
Water, Substance. 

Combustion, " Action. 

Heat, Activity. 

Steam, Energy. 

Steam-chest, " Concentration. 

Machinery, Construction. 

The higher analogy between the two may be 
explained, as regards correspondence, as follows: 



SYMBOLS. 145 

The Boiler of the Engine, in its office and action, 
corresponds to the Mind; because it is the instru- 
ment for developing and retaining energy in the 
shape of developed activity. In its correct action 
the real purpose of the individual thinker is 
recognized, and may be understood. 
Water symbolizes the Spiritual Substance of Life — 
Living Reality; mobile, elastic, limpid and pure; 
cleansing, healing, brightening and strengthening 
ever}' living thing with which it comes in contact. 
Combustion, or fire, on the material plane, symbolizes 
Thought-Action, which liberates the latent energy 
inhering in the substance of every intelligent 
being. The physical action is a symbol. 
Heat symbolizes the Spiritual Activity of the Uni- 
verse, which is latent in all substance. 
Steam symbolizes Spiritual Energy, which proceeds 

from the activities of living Reality. 
The Steam-chest, a receptacle in which is stored all 
the energy and power designed for use in that 
particular machine, has its correspondence in the 
Cardiac membrane of the body, which extends — 
an unbroken receptacle — from the Heart through 
all vessels of the arteries, the veins and the Lungs. 
Every engine and machine has its exact counter- 
part in some feature of the mechanism of the human 
body with its vital organs. Whatever is true of the 
mechanical machine is true also of the body. All the 



146 OBJECTIVE AND SUBJECTIVE IDEAS. 

principles involved in the one are of equal importance 
to the other. Each subjective element represented in 
the power-producing forces of the machine is a con- 
structive element of every mind. Without every part, 
every faculty and every function in perfect operation, 
the best results can not be obtained, either with the 
vital or the mechanical machine. 

Without heat, water would fail to develop steam, 
and without combustion there could be no heat. 
Without water, combustion and heat would be use- 
less; and in the absence of a Boiler there could be no 
retention of force, and the energy of these elements 
could not be successfully applied through this par- 
ticular machine. With no steam-chest, energy could 
not be concentrated, and in the absence of special 
machinery the concentrated energy could not be applied 
for a definite purpose. Steam is the active agency of 
this design, and without it no possible action can be 
established in that machine. 

To return for a moment to the list of elements 
combined and activities involved in the steam engine: 
The objective list is composed entirely of physical 
elements. Each one is material in construction, and 
in its present state can never leave the earth; yet, in 
character, each is distinctly spiritual, deriving its char- 
acteristics directly from the corresponding subjective 
principle, without which the physical would not exist. 

The Subjective list is entirely spiritual, and belongs 



ANALOGY OF IDEAS. 147 

to the realm of active, conscious Reality. Each item 
of the list is an idea in universal mind, and has its 
being independent of materiality. It cannot be mani- 
fested in sensation, except through some material con- 
struction embodying its principles. But the objective 
representation is not the same real entity that the 
subjective principle is. The subjective can continue 
to be, independent of the existence of the objective, 
while the objective can have no existence apart from 
the subjective, which is its foundation. 

Steam illustrates energy. Now, energy is an infi- 
nite and eternal reality, always present in the universe 
and susceptible at all times of demonstration in count- 
less ways. Steam is but one of the existing modes of 
expression of the inherent power of spiritual energy. 
If energy were not present in the universe the power 
of steam would never have been developed ; for 
steam is only the energy that is latent in water, 
escaping from temporary restraint, and displaying the 
usual freedom of its real nature. Remove energy 
from steam, and its seeming qualities vanish, while 
the element, steam, instantly ceases to exist in 
form. The physical is nothing when the spiritual 
is absent. 

By the same analogy, it the idea Substance were 
not present in universal mind, the element Water 
would have no appearance on this or on any other 
planet. Substance is the life of every earthly element,- 



148 ACTIVITY AND PURPOSE. 

uniting and holding together all its particles. If all 
the water of the earth were destroyed, substance would 
still inhere in every remaining thing. The idea Sub- 
stance is an ever-present reality, which can neither 
cease to be, diminish, nor change. It is eternal. 

Activity is ever present in each atom of every ele- 
ment. Without this eternal - entity, a spiritual Idea, 
possessed of eternal life, even the atom would cease 
to hoki its form, and would vanish. If there were no 
activity there could be neither combustion nor heat; 
these constitute the body, while eternal activity is the 
spirit of their life. If there were no conscious idea of 
a purpose, a steam-boiler never could have been 
invented, as the boiler only expresses the purpose for 
which it exists, namely, to develop and retain for use 
the energy which exists in water, but which is useless 
while seemingly confined within those narrow bounds. 
The individual mind derives its idea of a purpose from 
universal mind, where it subsists as an eternal entity 
of divine reality. It is the impulse of all mentality. 

If the conscious idea of concentration were not 
present in universal mind, the steam-chest never would 
have been conceived by man ; and without purpose, 
concentrated for action, the machine would have no 
existence. It could never have come into shape 
or operation. 

The life of each objective element inheres in the 
essence of its corresponding subjective element. The 



THE PHYSICAL REFLECTION OF THOUGHT. 149 

substance endures, while its reflected expression con- 
stantly changes. The subjective or real is spiritual; 
its first reflection in the mind of man is mental action. 

The material body belongs entirely in the objective 
realm, and is governed by the laws which relate to 
objective things. Under the guiding influence of mind, 
intelligently exercised through conscious thought, it 
can be perfectly controlled in accordance with Nature's 
universal laws of life. 

In pure action, mind is entirely subjective, and 
has its field of action on the spiritual plane, dealing 
directly with subjective elements. The thought-actions 
of mind transfer to and control molecular action in 
every part of the body, through the mental image of 
the idea with which mind deals ; for the thought-action 
forms a physical copy of the mental image of that idea. 

In this action we may recognize a physical reflec- 
tion of thought. The mind creates it through thought. 

The correspondence between the thought and the 
bodily condition which represents it, according to this 
rule of comparison, are in many instances so marked 
that when thoughtfully observed there is no escape 
from the conviction that one proceeds directly from 
the other. The action proves the relation. 

There are a variety of ways in which this com- 
parison can be tested by those who have sufficient 
control of their own mental powers to form an idea in 
mind and hold it persistently and continuously in 



150 MENTAL HEALING. 

action. Such operations yield surprising results. 

The relation that this thought bears to the physical 
structure will demonstrate itself through a correspond- 
ing action that will soon develop with the part of the 
mechanism which is involved in the transaction. 

Every feature of sensation of which the physical 
body is capable may be produced in this way, and the 
simulacrum in sensation is sometimes startling. If the 
mental action be continued and its relation to the bodily 
functions be considered, the nervous system will 
promptly show forth a physical response to the action 
that is significative to say the least. Closely watched, 
this mode of activity soon shows a reproductive forma- 
tion taking place in physical tissue. Either disease or 
health may in this manner be produced in the body by 
means of either the conscious or the subconscious 
operations of the mind. 

This fact is significant and the statement is worthy 
of investigation. Great possibilities rest within the 
knowledge of the laws involved. 



IX. 

THE MENTAL ORIGIN OF DISEASE 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE MENTAL ORIGIN OF DISEASE. 
Thought Images. 

Can mind cause Disease ? Is it possible for an act 
of mind without exterior physical means to produce 
an actual case of Sickness? 

In various forms this question is agitating the 
minds of many intelligent thinkers, whose attention 
has in one way or another been called to the statements 
made by the schools of Mental Healing that disease is 
caused and can be cured by mental means. 

The sentiment commonly expressed on first meet- 
ing with the idea is, that sickness is disease, and that 
Disease is a physical thing possessing independent 
power for harm to the physical body. 

It is frequently stated with the utmost assurance 
that mind has nothing to do with disease, except that, 
perhaps, the sickness may have reacted somewhat upon 
the mind, but that if the disease be removed by phys- 
ical means the normal condition of mind will thereby 
be restored. This result, however, seldom follows. 

One of the commonest statements heard is 
''Mental treatment may answer very well for the 

153 



154 MENTAL HEALING. 

hysterical and those of doubtful intelligence who 
imagine sickness but are not diseased. My sickness, 
however, is not imaginary ; it is a genuine disease with 
which mind has no connection. Such cases require 
medicine which can be swallowed, or physical treat- 
ment. Mind can neither cause nor cure physical 
disease. Everybody knows this to be a fact." 

These and kindred opinions seem to rest on a foun- 
dation of knowledge and common experience, yet every 
such thought is erroneous, and entertained only because 
the question of disease and its active cause has been 
viewed from but one side, while conclusions have been 
based upon the evidence of the physical senses, without 
investigation of the real activities of human nature. 
The conclusions are hasty and unreliable. 

Although in many cases the disease to be dealt 
with is a physical condition more or less clearly appar- 
ent to the senses, yet it is never absolutely certain that 
it is physical in every part of its nature ; neither is there 
adequate evidence that it originated from a physical 
cause alone. Deeper research overthrows the opinion. 

In fact, such conclusion can only be reached 
through undemonstrated opinion, as the most 
cursory investigation of prevailing mental conditions 
presents numerous points of evidence that some degree 
of corresponding mental action in a definite direction 
takes place on the mental plane previous to the devel- 
opment of any diseased condition in Individual, Fam- 



DEGREES OF DISEASE. 155 

ily, Community or Race. This fact is universal. 

The further honest investigation of this subject 
is carried, the more overwhelming becomes the accu- 
mulated evidence that disease originates in previously 
established mental action, which works itself out 
through the vital organs of the physical system, 
unrecognized except as the physical sensations result- 
ing from the mental disturbances are observed. This 
is now a thoroughly established fact, and only those 
who refuse to investigate can continue to doubt the 
statement. It has been proved repeatedly. 

Three principal degrees of disease are now recog- 
nized. First, those conditions of the material body in 
which physical change of tissue has occurred in organic 
structure because of the continued presence of some 
definite unhealthy action. This form is recognized as 
Organic Disease, or Lesion, and is usually considered 
the most serious form of sickness. It is commonly sup- 
posed to bear no relation whatever to mental activity, 
but to be itself a physical thing, with definite power 
for harmful action. The fear of it often causes 
sickness. 

Such a conclusion postulates intelligence of 
disease, and makes it logically necessary to con- 
sider it an animal possessed of some degree of will 
and determination. These faculties are purely mental; 
therefore the animal must possess mind as well as body 
— the mind of a microbe instead of that of a man, but 



156 MENTAL SUPERIORITY. 

mind, nevertheless, else it would be devoid of power 
to plan and execute. As mind it must possess intelli- 
gence, else it would not know how to act ; and its 
intelligence is spiritual because there is no other 
intelligence. Matter cannot possess intelligence. 

This carries the postulate off the physical 
ground and beyond the animal plane, and elim- 
inates it as a harmful entity. Comprehensive thought 
completes the circle, ending in wholeness which 
destroys fear. The false premise terminates in 
a vacuum. The mind can go no further. 

The human mind includes all faculties of the entire 
animal kingdom, combined with the higher activities 
of logical reasoning and intellectual comprehension of 
principles; therefore it possesses powers of intelli- 
gence immeasurably greater than those of any microbe, 
and so should readily overthrow any animal action or 
plan for action on the field of the human body. The 
one necessary condition is an adequate understanding 
of the laws that are involved. 

Next in order, in the classification of diseases, 
comes that class of disturbances of the physical sys- 
tem, in which, though no physical lesion or change of 
structure can be discovered, yet the patient is afflicted 
with weakness, lack of endurance, and excitability, 
together with various tendencies recognized as nervous 
or neurotic, and classed either as diseases or functional 
disturbances. These, also, are generally considered 



NEUROTIC CONDITIONS. 157 

actual physical diseases, affecting only the nervous sys- 
tem. They are usually classed under the head of 
neurosis or neurasthenia, and are known as neurasthetic 
conditions. They are difficult to medicate. 

Prominent physicians recognize that the mind 
probably lias much to do with developing this 
form of disease, but usually they are unable to satis- 
factorily explain the mode of development, and hence 
are practically powerless to remove the troublesome 
symptoms by medication, though they study and work 
with great patience, confidence and hope. 

In the third class of recognized diseases, marked 
symptoms of distress appear, without any physical 
lesion of tissue or definite nervous derangement that 
can be mechanically discovered ; yet the patient evi- 
dently suffers and seems unable to control action. 
These cases are considered purely nervous and are 
frequently classed as diseases of the Imagination. 

It is freely admitted that these conditions may 
sometimes originate in the mind, because of a distorted 
imagination. It also is frequently admitted that 
mental treatment may have some effect upon this class 
of patients, because it is supposed that nothing is the 
matter with them. This last opinion is a common 
<rror. based upon misunderstanding of the case. 

Almost countless names have been attached to the 
manifold forms of disease, but all are modes of wrong 
molecular action and each one comes under the head 



158 MENTAL CAUSATION. 

of one or the other of the three previously mentioned 
degrees of disorder. Distinctly named, these are: 

1. Organic disease : Lesion of physical tissue devel- 
oped by continued disturbance of some organ or part. 

2. Nervous disorder : Disturbance of the circulation 
of nerve fluids, either organic or functional. 

3. Hysterical, imaginary and unreal : Commonly 
supposed to be unnecessary and susceptible to personal 
control by the sufferer, himself. 

Investigation of mental action in its relation to the 
physical substructure discloses the fact that the three 
classes of disease, Organic, Neurotic and Hysterical, 
are closely associated in what is really one class, with 
three degrees of action. Also, that each lower degree 
prepares the way for, leads to, and, if permitted in 
continue in operation, develops to the succeeding 
degree in due time, under favorable conditions and 
circumstances. This development is not, as some sup- 
pose, from physical to mental, but vice versa, the orig- 
inal mental action eventually leading to a physical con- 
dition corresponding to its mental cause. In general 
observation, only the physical side is seen; conse- 
quently, the mental action that has previously been in 
operation is not detected; nevertheless it is an active 
factor in life, and has produced the present physical 
condition. It is the only real means of existence. 

Beginning with external evidence and tracing back 
for an adequate cause, the fact usually is soon dis- 



NERVOUS ACTION. 159 

closed that in a given case of organic disease there 
first existed a nervous or functional disturbance with 
that part of the structure, before the lesion of tissue 
described by the particular form of disease became 
established. This is natural sequence. 

This nervous disturbance sometimes develops 
so rapidly and in so subtile a manner as not 
to attract attention until the organic degree is reached. 
Y\ nether of long or short duration, however, if fol- 
lowed patiently and intelligently it can invariably be 
traced back, through all the stages of nervousness, 
from the extreme symptoms bordering on the organic, 
perhaps through many degrees of action, to the first 
nervous tendencies, so slight as scarcely to be per- 
ceptible — then back still further, to some element of 
mental distress established before the first faint nerv- 
ous tracings of the symptoms began. 

If this original mental action had not taken 
place the organic disease would never have 
developed. This establishes it as a "cause." 
When the mental action ceases the disease 
vanishes. This proves the correspondence and 
the relation. And experience demonstrates it. 

While mental agitation continues, nervous agi- 
tation gradually, though perhaps imperceptibly, 
increases. It first exists in mind, sometimes develop- 
ing to hysteria or melancholia, even to insanity. Pro- 
longed disturbance of nervous circulation develops 



160 MENTAL CONTROL. 

nerve exhaustion, spinal irritation or general nervous 
weakness. These eventually lead to disturbance of 
those vital organs which are the most closely asso- 
ciated with the nervous system, as c. g., of the heart 
and blood vessels, producing a fever; of the digestive 
organs, resulting in dyspepsia ; and so on through the 
entire system, and with all known diseases. . 

Every organ, muscle, artery, nerve and function 
is under absolute control of the thinking mind 
which is its living intelligence. This control is exerted 
entirely by mind acting through the nervous system. 

Next in order after the sympathetic system of 
ganglionic nerves, is the cerebro-spinal nervous sys- 
tem, which includes all the larger nerves and systems 
of nerves, supplying circulation to the principal vital 
organs and to the organs of sense. Following this 
there is a distinct system of arteries and veins ; a sys- 
tem of vital organs; a muscular system; and a bony 
substructure, all of which systems unite to form one 
physical body. 

Each organ and every part of this physical 
structure is under the intelligent control of the 
thinking mind, through thought exercised on the vari- 
ous planes of consciousness and reflected in the 
mechanism of the nervous system. 

The sympathetic nervous system corresponds more 
nearly than any other to the structure of the mental 
mechanism. It definitely registers every intelligent 



BABES AND SICKNESS. 161 

thought-activity, and faithfully reproduces every 
thought-picture formed in the mind by consciousness. 

Every mental act is physically registered, either 
subconsciously or superconsciously — first, probably on 
the brain, which is the center of molecular action in 
the nervous system ; then, through the circulation of 
nerve-fluid in all branches of both nervous systems, 
on the vital organs; and, in turn, by means of the cir- 
culation of the blood, in and through every part of the 
material body, internal and external. 

In this way the mind, operating through wrong 
methods, becomes responsible for every abnormal 
action in the physical system, and causes all of its 
suffering. 

When clearly comprehended, the principle of the 
physical reflection of thought explains the numerous 
sicknesses of those children who are too young to think 
harm for themselves, yet who have mental mechanisms 
that register surrounding influences, frequently in the 
minutest detail. The modes of action expressed in 
those influences are afterward re-enacted in the phys- 
ical system, developing various corresponding diseases. 
The anxious thought of the mother, nurse or 
doctor, for the child, reflects to, is absorbed by 
and re-enacted in the little one's psychic mental 
mechanism. The mental picture of uncertainty, gen- 
erated in the older mind, perhaps through fear of 
some particular danger to which the child is 



162 MINDS ARE MIRRORS. 

supposed to have been subjected, is reflected in 
the delicate nervous system, and correspond- 
ing vibrations of discord register in the physical 
system ; — the child is taken sick in consequence. This 
effect is generally attributed to the weather, the food, 
or to the supposed presence in the atmosphere of some 
particular thing called a disease, while the real enemy 
remains unrecognized. This error is often fatal. 

Minds are mirrors to thought-pictures, and reflect 
perfectly every outline. The minds of intelligent chil- 
dren are the most keenly sensitive mirrors of this kind, 
responding instantly to either right or wrong thought- 
action. Because of this fact these helpless little victims 
are at the mercy of surrounding mental disturbances, 
unless a counteracting mental influence of a right char- 
acter is brought to bear in their favor. 

The appalling child mortality in many civilized 
communities marks through our otherwise enlight- 
ened land the blighted pathway of erroneous convic- 
tions in regard to the thought of evil. If entertained, 
this thought will inevitably result in the fear of death — 
or an end to life. It is too severe for health. 

This line of action contains mental images of 
distress which these sensitive little ones can not 
endure, and because of its distressing vibrations 
they pass over the border in thousands. 

Several types of contagious disease originate 
entirely within this malignant field of false Mental 



THOUGHT-THINGS. 163 

Imagery. The subconscious action of similar thought 
is extremely intricate in detail, yet one erroneous prin- 
ciple underlies its every exercise : that is, the picturing 
in mind of conceptions contrary to the harmonies of 
real life. Otherwise disease would never exist. 

The excuse that such thoughts are believed 
to be true will not in the smallest degree change the 
law or prevent the inevitable result. 

Every thought is a "thing" in mind, and throws 
out a reflection which must be like the mental action 
from which it proceeds. When people learn to think 
and picture in mind that which they wish to possess 
rather than that which they fear, this law will be 
employed for real and permanent good. 

The Law is inexorable : act against it, and you will 
inevitably suffer all of its penalties ; co-operate with it 
and you will as certainly share its goodness. 

The direct action of mind in and through the nerv- 
ous system, is the secret of what seems to be physical 
life. When it ceases, life leaves the body, but does not 
necessarily leave the mind ; for mind is a living entity 
of spiritual substance, having an enduring nature inde- 
pendent of matter or physical form. 

Spiritual activity is the only real life, and spirit is 
the one active substance of Divine Reality in the 
universe. This is a fundamental thought. 

When used in relation to man, Mind and Spirit 
are terms employed to designate conscious activity on 



1C4 THE MENTAL ORIGIN OF DISEASE. 

different planes of existence and in different phases of 
life. Spirit is the intelligent individual, active in the 
higher forms and on all possible planes of intelligence 
and consciousness. Mind is the same individual acting 
on the thought-plane only. It is correspondingly 
limited. 

Continuing this classification : The personality 
is that individual acting temporarily on the sense- 
plane, in the illusion of physical sensation; 
and the body is a physical machine, constructed 
by the mind, of material elements, and for the purpose 
of analyzing sensations on this plane. Being a part of 
the earth, the body never leaves it, yet it depends 
entirely upon mind for form, structure, action, power 
and organization. It cannot make its own conditions. 

He whose knowledge of his own being is limited 
to the outward objective laws of the physical body, 
knows nothing certain even about that organism; 
while he who has acquired true knowledge of the foun- 
dation principles of life, operating through the 
spiritual action of thought, has an understanding 
of facts with regard to the activities of both mind 
and body, and can use this knowledge with effect. 

The physical body is controlled entirely by the 
mind, which re-enacts all of the fundamental activities 
of intelligence ; and these, in turn, are naturally pro- 
duced by active spirit, which is the substantial principle 
of conscious life in all phases of being. 



THOUGHT IMAGES. 165 

When spiritual life-action ceases to register in the 
nerves of the body, that organism begins to disintegrate 
and soon returns to its component elements of carbon, 
iron, salt, lime, soda, sulphur, phosphorus, magnesium, 
potash, saltpetre, water, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, 
and other earth elements of which it is constructed, 
and in varying proportions of which it is held together 
during physical life, by superconscious mental action. 
Each mind builds its own body and sustains its life. 

Whether the body shall be retained in its 
natural proportion of ingredients and in normal 
degrees of action, depends upon the character 
of the mental action which governs it, while 
this, in turn, depends upon the active thought 
generated by the individual. And the character of the 
thought which each individual will exercise must 
depend entirely upon the ideas which he entertains 
about the principles and the entities of the universe. 
In his daily life he will reproduce their activities. 

These facts are concentrated in the Proverb of 
Solomon : "For as he thinketh in his heart so is he,"* 
both physically and mentally, in fact. 

Thinking contrary to natural law produces disease. 
Thinking in accordance with the laws of nature results 
in health. This principle is absolute and universal. 

Where no mental action exists, no disease can take 



Proverbs xxiii: 7. 



166 MENTAL HEALING. 

root. This idea is fundamental to all Mental Healing. 

This statement is indisputable, if the fact of sub- 
conscious and superconscious as well as conscious 
mental action be taken into consideration, as must be 
the case before any definite information in regard to 
either mind or body can be acquired. 

Pure thought always reflects in pure action. Pure 
act invariably reacts in harmonious sensation. 

The Law is whole and even. Its results are emi- 
nently beneficial to all alike. Man cannot rightly live 
without the knowledge of this law. 



CURATIVE INFLUENCES. 



CHAPTER X. 

CURATIVE INFLUENCES. 
What Is a Mental Cure? 

In general Metaphysical Philosophy man is com- 
monly considered as being composed of: 

First — Spirit, a living intelligence, capable of Con- 
sciousness and of living for a purpose ; a real entity 
of spiritual essence and substance — eternal, inde- 
structible ; therefore not subject to physical injury 
or any outward control. Its next phase is the Soul. 

Second — Mind, which is the spiritual soul operat- 
in the thinking pliasc of living activity. It subdivides 
into Intellect and the rive senses. 

Third — Body, an outward expression of Mind in 
the evidence of sensation, through a physical system 
composed chiefly of millions of ganglia and nerves, 
combined in so intricate a system that its detail is 
almost beyond human comprehension ; so infinite in 
number that even the point of a needle placed in con- 
tact with the skin sometimes covers not only a nerve, 
but a system of nerves too fine to be examined Im- 
material agency. The senses can never define them. 

Nothing physical can be constructed fine enough 

169 



170 SYMPATHETIC NERVES. 

to operate advantageously upon these innnitesimally 
small organs, to say nothing of influencing the vital 
fluid which flows through them. In construction they 
are finer than the molecular form of any drug. Man's 
physical senses are too coarse to come in contact with 
them, and his means for mechanical action are too 
large to operate upon them ; his clumsy attempts can 
only interfere with Nature's mental handiwork. Yet 
these delicate instruments are of the most vital impor- 
tance in every act of physical life, and direct curative 
influence is impossible except through some mode of 
their activity, controlled by thought. 

The ganglionic nerves are the immediate instru- 
ments of mind, responding to every conscious thought, 
as do the strings of a harp to atmospheric vibrations. 
Thought is more subtile than even these tiny organs, 
and they obey its every impulse. 

In the attempt to heal, the conventional physician 
approaches the case from a material standpoint, reach- 
ing the physical body through the stomach by means 
of chemical action; therefore, he can at best hope to 
reach directly only those troubles which are distinctly 
associated with digestion and assimilation of food, 
with conditions of the blood and of those special 
organs the action of which depends upon the stomach. 

Chemical action in the human stomach is not a 
fixed quantity, but varies with every person and 
changes with every emotion of the mind. Because of 



THE CHEMIST, MIND. 171 

this fact, the effect of medicine can never be foretold 
with exactness, and every dose becomes an experi- 
ment. Mind is the Chemist that operates in the 
laboratory with digestion, and through the activity of 
thought on all planes of consciousness the digestive 
apparatus is under absolute control of intelligence. 

The Metaphysician approaches the individual from 
a standpoint opposite that of the medical schools, con- 
sidering him a spiritual being rather than a thing com- 
posed mainly of material elements. Dealing with 
mind, he reaches the physical system through the brain 
and the ganglionic nervous system, rather than through 
the stomach, — entering at the front door and meeting 
his Host in the drawing-room instead of in the kitchen. 
Comprehensive understanding is the basis of operation 
rather than chemical fermentation. Appeal is made to 
the intelligent soul on the plane of understanding, 
instead of to the personality on the plane of sensation ; 
correct living action is thereby established in mind and 
superconsciously re-enacted in the brain cells. This 
condition is immediately transmitted through nerve 
circulation to all parts of the body, changing wrong 
modes of action in each organ to those which are 
right, and correcting every distorted function. Direct 
material action upon a particular organ is not neces- 
sary to this result. 

Mind is the masterly regulator of the entire phys- 
ical mechanism, and must therefore preside over every 



172 IMAGINARY CONDITIONS. 

possible chemical action in all digestive processes. If 
the right mental condition be established a correspond- 
ing physical condition becomes a matter of course. 

In dealing with classified diseases by any physical 
process of cure, the distinctly nervous and mental 
forms give the physician the most trouble. To aban- 
don the attempt to heal, shifting the responsibility to 
the patient with the statement that nothing is the mat- 
ter — it is only "Imagination," is to confess entire 
ignorance as regards this remarkable faculty, by which 
strong men often are held in bondage. 

It is puerile to say of any patient that his sickness 
is only imaginary — a fault of his own which he might 
correct if he would. No sane man would intentionally 
bring suffering upon himself and consciously continue 
its action, and no insane person would be capable of 
deliberately producing such a result. Clearly some- 
thing is wrong; and be the trouble real or "imaginary" 
it is the physician's duty to ascertain its nature, and to 
discover an adequate remedial agency. 

If, perchance, the patient only imagines a trouble 
which is not present, there should be found a cure 
for that distorted imagination. Such a cure will never 
be discovered without a full understanding of what 
Imagination really is, and in what line of activity it 
originates. The Image always rules the action. 

The Imagination being a mental faculty, or, at 
least, an instrument of the mind, in order to gain the 



INVERTED THEORIES. 173 

necessary information the mental activities must be 
investigated. Study along this line has been some- 
what neglected by the medical schools, principally, 
perhaps, because mind has been viewed as an adjunct 
of the body, more or less physical in its nature : a vague 
something or other, probably seated in the brain, per- 
chance the brain itself; and the statement is fre- 
quently heard that mind is incapable of action except 
in accordance with its existing physical conditions, as 
an instrument of the body. This opinion leads to the 
conclusion that mind is of no importance in a thera- 
peutic sense, save that it should be kept quiet until the 
physical body can be healed through drug medication. 
Then, it is assumed, the body will restore its own mind 
to the normal condition. 

Metaphysical philosophy shows this view of the 
construction and control of man's natural system to 
be not only erroneous, but exactly a reversal of the 
facts of life. The mind leads in all action. 

Adequate study of all forms of sickness proves 
the existence of a mental origin for each case ; there- 
fore all maladies are mental rather than physical in 
their nature, being simply different degrees of mental 
distress registered in the physical system. 

Continued experiment demonstrates the fact that 
all forms of disease may be cured by changing the 
order of the mental action from which they originally 
emanated. The mental condition is the basis of 



174 LOGIC IN THERAPEUTICS. 

physical action, and may always safely control it. 

This is what Metaphysical Healing accomplishes. 
It occupies a field where medical knowledge is inade- 
quate, where materia medica is silent, and where medi- 
cal practice is powerless to aid directly the millions 
who turn to it with confidence, in the hopeful expec- 
tation of scientific relief. 

The subject of the mental nature and cure of dis- 
ease is worthy of the most careful examination by 
every intelligent thinker. The history of medical prac- 
tice shows that in the treatment of disease the experi- 
ence of the competent physician leads him away from 
the administration of drugs. The most successful 
physicians of the present day employ the least number 
and the smallest quantity of medicines — frequently 
none, even in severe cases. Why? "The less there is 
employed of the right remedy the better the result 
produced !" Such is the logic derived from these facts 
of practice. Can the results be true or real ? 

In the hope of finding possible remedies, experi- 
ment has been made with almost every known element 
of the earth ; and every minute part of the physical 
system has been examined, in order to discover its 
material rules of action. Yet to-day materia medica 
has no remedy for any sympathetic nervous disease, 
except some drug which intensifies nervous action 
often to the point of destroying the finer parts of the 
nervous system, or stupefies the faculties by partially 



MISTAKEN CONCLUSIONS. 175 

paralyzing what yet remains undestroyed of that intri- 
cate system of finest nerves which are of most vital 
importance in physical existence : in fact, all the more 
important because too line in construction to be exam- 
ined through the instruments of sensation. 

This line of experiment frequently terminates in 
what perhaps is attributed to the supposed fatality of 
an existing disease.- The result was really brought 
about, however, through the presence of a foreign ele- 
ment introduced into the system, an element which 
destroyed the natural action that it was expected to 
restore, while the real cause passed unrecognized. Of 
course, the harm is unintentional, and the disastrous 
result deplored, perhaps in an agony of regrets, by the 
physician as well as by the patient's friends, but the 
error is none the less fatal for that reason. 

Under the theory of drug medication, when an 
organ or a function is unnaturally excited, the physi- 
cian aims to depress the nervous system and to dis- 
courage action, thereby to reduce vitality, until dis- 
turbance shall cease. When action is subnormal, the 
aim is to intensify action by means of a stimulant or 
other excitant, which causes an equally unnatural mode 
of molecular motion in the disturbed parts without in 
any degree increasing the amount of vitality in the 
system. Such methods cannot be curative. 

In either of these attempts to heal, the final result 
is a reduction of the vitality registered in the physical 



176 DRUGS AND MENTALITY. 

system; because all poisons injure, and most drugs 
destroy, some part of the finer nervous mechanism, 
thereby rendering the instrument imperfect, so that 
Mind, the real and intelligent operator — the only 
source of vitality in the human body — can not register 
its highest and best modes of activity ; as with a harp 
or piano, when the strings belonging to any notes are 
broken, those tones can no longer be produced, be the 
operator never so skilful. 

The nervous system is the physical mechanism 
through which mind outwardly expresses its thoughts 
and registers its modes of action in the body. No per- 
son can physically live a moment without a nervous 
system. No one can be actively intelligent on this life 
plane without the most finely constructed nervous sys- 
tem, in perfect condition and fully operative. Every 
nerve dispensed with means a corresponding degree of 
physical power sacrificed, and under some circum- 
stances lost for the remainder of this life-period. 

For every material element contained in the earth 
there is a corresponding mental element, or a mode 
of activity in universal mind; the correspondence is 
always exact and the laws run parallel in all cases. 
Every drug is accompanied by a mode of subcon- 
scious mental activity of a degraded order, which is 
so foreign to the nature of the mental organism and 
to the natural construction and operation of the higher 
divisions of the nervous mechanism, that normal action 



INCOMPATIBLES. 177 

is impossible while it is present. The physical and the 
mental of a parallel grade accompany each other: 
moral and physical degradation go hand in hand. The 
usual moral degradation of those addicted to the 
habitual use of either alcohol or opium illustrates this 
principle. The moral element is absent. 

The average patient expects that the drug admin- 
istered will act with curative effect upon the disease 
which is supposed to be present, and believes that alco- 
hol and other drugs possess substance and sustaining 
power which are needed in reconstructing the depleted 
system. But, in fact, healthy tissue is built only by 
nature and from natural food ingredients, never in 
any instance from a poisonous preparation. Every 
drug is a poison, which enters the circulation in the 
same manner as other poisons. Nature rejects 
unnatural ingredients and expels them from every part 
of the physical system by the most energetic means, 
because they are useless in the construction of healthy 
tissue. They are against } not for, health. The atomic 
construction and molecular form of drugs are unlike 
that of any part of the human system. There is no 
health either in a poison or in any of its attendant 
effects. The action is invariably deleterious. 

The tremendous effort made by nature to eject 
from the system any foreign element of a poisonous 
character sometimes leads to the erroneous conclusion 
that the element contains in itself genuine power-pro- 



178 DESTRUCTIVE INFLUENCE. 

ducing forces, which are adapted to establish natural 
action and to restore health. On the contrary, the 
system is frequently depleted of its vitality by the 
serious drain made upon it in disposing of the useless 
element, resulting in harm which more than counter- 
balances any good that could be expected from dis- 
torted action inevitably following the introduction of 
a drug. The nervous system is too fine to bear them. 

If for any reason nature fails to eject the drug 
introduced, mind deserts the physical system, because 
it has been rendered unfit for its purpose. 

Drugs frequently change molecular construction 
in either blood or nerve fluid by destroying the mole- 
cules themselves, thereby producing chemical com- 
binations for which nature has no use, and depriving 
the system of its natural sustenance. In this condi- 
tion mental action, whether right or wrong, cannot 
clearly express itself; and so, although temporary 
relief in mere sensation may sometimes be gained, 
it is at the cost of a partial destruction of the 
finest, therefore the most important, nerves. 

If the fact were generally understood that in the 
physical body any degree of action necessary to the 
restoration of health may readily be produced through 
rightly directed thought-energy, this worse-than-use- 
less forcing of the vital organs into distressing modes 
of action would cease, and many valuable lives would 
be prolonged for future usefulness. 



FALLACIES. 179 

People remain under the unhappy influences of 
disease and drugs only because the true laws of life 
are unknown to them. False opinions with regard to 
the nature, scope and pow r er of disease and its true 
remedies, almost universally prevail, because errone- 
ous ideas of life based upon a physical structure only 
are commonly taught. These ideas have developed 
almost imperceptibly during study of the controlled 
body instead of the controlling mind, as the real man. 
This study has been pursued entirely upon the inade- 
quate and unreliable evidence of the five physical 
senses, while the permanent activities of the individual 
and his more reliable senses of higher perception have 
been largely ignored. Information thus gained is 
incomplete and, if trusted literally, will be misleading 
in man}' ways. The evidence is inverted, and it can 
only mislead the observer. 

The fallacious theory that healthy tissue can be 
produced either from or because of the presence of 
that which can only result in destruction of tissue, has 
already filled uncounted millions of untimely graves. 
Will you. intelligent reader, allow this theory to mis- 
lead you, or will you don the cap of logic and the coat 
of reasonable analysis, enter the field of investigation, 
and learn tor yourself the principles because of which 
you live, and the laws of mental action through which 
your physical system has been developed? If you learn 
these truths thoroughly, disease will lose the terrors of 



180 THE IDEA AND ITS COPY. 

its supposed power over you and yours, and untimely 
death will cease to haunt you as a possible outcome of 
nearly every simple act of life. 

Effort to cure nervous troubles will generally result 
in failure until adequate study of the mental mechan- 
ism and its spiritual faculties is accomplished, when it 
will be discovered that the body is an adjunct of the 
mind, not vice versa as frequently supposed, and that 
it is built and sustained by mind, which is the con- 
trolling power under all circumstances. In fact, it has 
already been proved in thousands of careful experi- 
ments that mind is a living, intelligent entity, having 
a nature, a system and a life of its own. The body 
reflects mental activity in physical element, and thus is 
built, partly destroyed or reconstructed, according as 
mind changes its modes of action. The mind plans 
and the body executes the plan, even regardless of 
personal intention. 

Mind is the intelligence of the body. Mind thinks , 
its thought is registered on the body in physical 
action. The thought is a model of the idea; the body 
and its conditions are a constructed copy of the model. 
When the model changes, the copy correspondingly 
changes. This rule holds good with regard to every 
part of the system, but is especially true of the most 
finely constructed parts, because these are subject to 
the quickest changes. In the finest nerve mechanism 
important changes frequently occur instantaneously, 



CURATIVE INFLUENCES. 181 

while in the coarser structure of bone, cartilage and 
ligament, they necessarily take place more slowly. 

The instant the mental cause ceases its disturbing 
vibrations, nature begins natural restorative activity 
in every part of the physical system ; this is as certain 
as that water will run down hill. All that is neces- 
sary, then, is that a correct diagnosis of the mental 
influences be obtained and that the mental changes be 
rightly produced by an understanding mind. 

In this perfectly natural way any case of sickness 
is curable by metaphysical treatment, provided there 
still remains enough of the substructure for nature to 
build upon. Unless there is something for nature to 
work upon, a cure of that case by any means 
is manifestly impossible. 

When these truths are intelligently comprehended 
the fact becomes evident that disease — whatever its 
name or nature — must originate in some mental activ- 
ity afterward registered in the body, where that mode 
of action is outwardly expressed. Knowledge of this 
fact is the key to accurate diagnostication and a sure 
guide to an adequate Mental Therapeutics. In such 
understanding, mind possesses most valuable powers, 
alike prophylactic, pathological, and therapeutic. 

The discovery of this eternal fact in regard to 
man's mental and physical structure is an electric 
search-light thrown upon this hitherto darkened field 
of inquiry. By understanding clearly how mind acts 



182 CURE THROUGH REVERSAL OF ACTION. 

to produce conditions of disease, and how it may be 
led to act in an opposite direction to result in health, 
the right remedies become apparent for all the ills to 
which the flesh has been supposed to be a hopeless heir. 

Through knowledge of the natural laws of human 
existence, based upon intelligent understanding of the 
fundamental principles of spiritual life, each think- 
ing mind has power to reverse every wrong mode of 
action and to establish right conditions. 

The natural exercise of this life-giving power in 
the removing of disease, demonstrates the legiti- 
mate Mental Cure. Its nature is metaphysical, its 
character is philosophic, and its working form is 
distinctly scientific. It can be relied upon for definite 
and permanent results. 

The intelligent community will soon recognize this 
fact, and accept the true system as the greatest good 
that has come to mankind in this century. 

No greater benefit can be bestowed upon man than 
natural health, to be easily acquired and retained. 



XI. 
THE PHYSICAL EFFECTS OF ANGER. 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE PHYSICAL EFFECTS OF ANGER. 
How Mental Action Causes Disease. 

The mental state commonly known as anger 
forcibly illustrates the line of action in which mind 
produces physical results. 

The English word Anger is derived from the Latin 
angor, which means "Compression of the neck ; 
strangling ; from angere, to press together ; to choke, 
especially of the mind; to torture; to vex." 

Anger is a passionate emotion of the mind. It is 
expressed in various degrees of intensity, ranging 
from slight fear of loss or other harm because of sup- 
posed injustice, to the most furious degree of rage, 
based upon imaginary hatred of another. 

Hatred is a false element which possesses no genu- 
ine quality and is destitute of principle. Rage, when 
forced to its final limits, ends in impotence ; this proves 
its native nothingness. It possesses no foundation. 

Anger has no harmonious modes of action. It 
originates on the lower plane of sense-existence, and 
is brutal in its nature. Definite physical conditions 
invariably follow the mental act. To test this state- 

L85 



186 DISTORTED ACTION. 

ment, analyze both the mental and physical conditions 
of an angry person and note the correspondence 
always existing between the two states of mind. 

In cases of extreme anger, the eyes violently snap 
in discord, the jaws are set and the teeth grind together 
expressing the thought of destruction indulged in the 
mind. The hands clench and the fingers clutch con- 
vulsively, evincing an inclination to destroy the object 
of supposed hatred. All muscles are tense, strained 
and abnormal, while their action is acute in nature, 
angular in character, destructive in intention and 
tendency. Every faculty and every function is 
distored, and every power is correspondingly 
depreciated. 

Under the influence of anger the action of the 
heart is also seriously disturbed. It beats in convul- 
sive throbbings, forcing destructive modes of motion 
upon the blood corpuscles, which modes in turn are 
conveyed to every vital organ. The face either flushes 
or pales, as blood is forced to the surface or with- 
drawn to the internal organs in congestion. Digestive 
processes are instantly checked, and do not proceed 
until natural circulation of the blood is restored. The 
kidneys secrete acids generated by the destruction of 
natural blood corpuscles ; these acids bear direct corre- 
spondence to the false and destructive character of 
vengeful thoughts. The lungs contract unnaturally 
and move in spasmodic gasps, in which every breath- 



HEALTHY ACTION. 187 

ing function is either paralyzed or distorted, result- 
ing in serious interference with respiration. In healthy 
action the lungs perform the final act of the process 
of digestion by oxygenation of the digested food 
before it passes into the arteries as blood for use in 
building new tissue. 

During healthy activity, which proceeds naturally 
from harmonious thought, an abundance of pure 
oxygen is extracted from the air inhaled and perfect 
digestion ensues ; but, during the inverted action which 
results from indulgence of angry thought, oxygen is 
discarded, while nitrogen is generated and retained 
beyond its normal proportion ; it thus interferes with 
the most important part of the process of digestion 
and assimilation, to the future detriment of every 
organ and function of the physical system. 

If a state of angry feeling or ill temper be allowed 
to become chronic, a similar disturbance of some 
or all of the vital, digestive, secretive and excretive 
organs and functions ensues. Disease of all kinds 
is generated spontaneously under these inharmonious 
conditions. 

While responding to angry influence every muscle 
of the body is under tension, and drawn to some extent 
out of its normal position. If anger be continued, 
muscular tension persists, followed by chronic con- 
traction, with or without painful sensation, accord- 
ing to circumstances. Muscular rheumatism frequently 



188 ANGER AND THE HEART. 

is generated in this manner. Any line of mental 
action which places the muscles under continuous ten- 
sion may result in some form of muscular rheumatism. 
Fright frequently becomes an active cause of acute 
rheumatism, which will assume muscular forms if the 
reflected mental action places the muscles under ten- 
sion, or inflammatory forms if the picture carries in 
its activity the element of burning, as in a mental pic- 
ture of flames or any intensely inflammatory thought. 
The details of the symptoms vary with the different 
causes, but the principles involved are identical. 

Under the influence of anger, the spasmodic mus- 
cular distortions of the heart produce violent valvular 
agitation, which is the exact representation of some 
forms of action in cases of valvular disease of the 
heart. If the disturbing cause be perpetuated, the 
valves continue to register the wrong action until it 
finally becomes a fixed habit, and some form of val- 
vular disease becomes established. The first physical 
stage of this disease is functional, but if not arrested 
it finally develops to organic. 

All forms of heart disease, including rheumatism 
of the heart, are caused by certain modes of mental 
action, generated by anger, fear, or some other abnor- 
mal emotion. The final symptoms are the direct result 
of the particular form of action established and con- 
tinued, let the cause of that action be what it may. 
In the final analysis of Anger we always find Fear as 



FEVERS. 1S9 

its foundation. These two emotions are closely allied. 

The direct action of the heart upon the blood is a 
point worthy of serious consideration here, because 
disturbance of the circulation affects all vital organs 
and interferes with every physical function. Anger, 
reflected in explosive heart throbs, resembling blows 
given under impulse of hatred, fires the blood with 
poison passion, which explodes molecules, destroys 
blood corpuscles, and decomposes tissue, generating 
chemical combinations unnatural and injurious to the 
entire physical structure. If abnormal action of the 
heart continues, a fever may develop, with character- 
istics corresponding to the nature of the causative men- 
tal action, whether it be anger, fear, excitement, worry 
or grief. All these mental states result in fever under 
suitable conditions. An abnormal degree of tempera- 
ture and rate of the pulse are direct physical effects of 
distorted mental emotion. 

Destructive modes of action established in the 
blood immediately extend to those vital organs which, 
in their action, respond to the mental faculties that 
were involved in the wrong thought, and a corre- 
sponding disturbance is likely to develop within that 
organ. Every form of organic disease develops easily 
from these modes of distorted action. 

Interference with the natural action of the liver 
causes the secretion of a poisonous bile which, in char- 
acter, corresponds exactly to the angry nature of the 



iGO THE PHYSICAL EFFECTS OF ANGER. 

original cause of the disturbance. Because of direct 
reaction upon the liver through the blood, malarial 
symptoms are a common outcome of anger, fear, grief, 
dread, or protracted worry and even anxiety. 

Bilious, typhoid and puerperal fevers frequently 
follow directly upon some violent outbreak of temper, 
either on the part of the patient or of some associate. 
Fright or great fear, particularly if accompanied by 
rage, may produce the same result. Fright prepares 
the way by undermining the nervous forces and weak- 
ening resistance, when an experience of anger may 
precipitate the trouble and determine the particular 
features of the disease to become established. In this 
event Fright would be the predisposing cause, and 
Anger the precipitating cause of the bilious or 
malarial attack. 

Unless counteracted by a change of mental action, 
acids generated in the blood through chemical decom- 
position eventually destroy the natural secretive pow- 
ers of the kidneys. This results in muscular degenera- 
tion, and develops kidney disease as the ultimate of 
destructive action. Extreme fright and protracted 
worry also frequently produce this result. 

The physical action established while yielding to 
angry impulse, is a natural outcome of the thought 
indulged, while the corresponding disease is the imme- 
diate result of the particular thought-action. The 
mental condition is registered and re-enacted in the 



THE BODY REPRODUCES THOUGHT. 191 

nervous system, producing its perfect copy in this as 
in other phases of human existence. The Body does 
not make the mind angry, but the Mind causes the body 
to re-enact the condition generated by the thought. 

It is imperative that distorted thought should pass 
away before the body can cease to register and express 
distorted action. Attempt to remedy the bodily condi- 
tions first is not only a waste of effort, but, if persisted 
in, may result disastrously. 

The disease that has in this manner been 
directly caused by anger, is a physical condition 
resulting from a previously established mental state. 
What is the right remedy? In a cure of the bodily 
condition the muscles must relax, the jaws loosen, the 
eyes become quiet, and again express kindly thoughts ; 
natural color should return to the face, and the agi- 
tated, trembling, nervous system once more become 
tranquil. How shall we proceed to bring about these 
results? Shall we rub the tense muscles with oil or 
with liniment to loosen them, pry open the set jaws 
and lubricate their joints, or sever a muscle in the eye 
to stop its angry snap? Shall we put some drug in 
the stomach to complete the destruction of blood 
corpuscles, when the disturbance is already as great as 
the system can bear, or paralyze the heart to arrest its 
spasmodic movements ? 

"Ridiculous !" is probably the exclamation of many 
who read these questions ; yet corresponding acts are 



192 THE MENTAL REMEDY. 

performed every day in cases of illness where the men- 
tal cause is equally evident, and would be readily recog- 
nized if the actual state of mind were duly considered. 
The proper cure for every case of this kind in any stage 
of its development lies not in treating physical results 
but in re-establishing correct mental action. 

How, then, may a mental remedy be applied? In 
the simplest form some quiet words should be spoken 
in a pleasant manner, and in a tone of voice as nearly 
opposite in character to the morbid state of mind as 
possible. Frequently under such influence the mental 
state soon changes, the anger begins to fade, the eye 
quiets, the muscles relax, the set jaws resume their 
natural position, the heart ceases to throb and gradu- 
ally resumes its normal action, the rate of the pulse 
is reduced, color returns to the surface of the skin, 
and natural action eventually results in every part of 
the body. Why? Because anger has ceased in mind, 
and there is no longer any element present to control 
the body through discord. The natural force of love 
and attraction is allowed to resume its harmonious 
sway. The physical organs are obliged to respond to 
the natural action now re-established in mind — they 
have no choice in the matter. 

If, however, after due persuasion, quiet words are 
not heeded and angry thought still continues, then 
metaphysical influence may be directly applied, accom- 
plishing what nothing else can. Silently that disturbed 



LOVE VERSUS ANGER. 193 

mind ma}' be reached by thoughts of calm, which, 
through the natural laws of mutual attraction, will 
compel it to listen and to cease its useless controversy. 

In metaphysical treatment the mind is reached on 
the spiritual plane of intelligence, where the attraction 
of love for all humanity prevails, in perfect sympathy 
with every troubled soul, and where anger is forever 
unknown. The angry person was acting on the plane 
of sensation, that of self-will, where thought is tem- 
porarily brutalized in selfish act. Because of the repel- 
lent nature of this kind of thought, he impulsively 
resists every effort to approach him consciously, with 
an idea different from his present indulgence, if it be 
expressed in spoken words ; but when Intelligence is 
appealed to in silent thought above the brute- will 
plane, his higher nature responds, he ceases- angry 
thought, and the good result is already accomplished. 

The opinion is commonly expressed that the result 
of anger is only a temporary condition of discord in 
body — not a settled physical disease. The reply is : 
Anger is a mental condition of dis-ease, — the literal 
root-meaning of the word disease ; and if allowed to 
continue, it settles into a chronic mental state, capable 
of developing to any degree of intensity. Through 
the natural correspondence of physical condition with 
mental activity, a definite form of disease is thereby 
established in the body. This disease is mental in 
nature as well as in origin ; therefore the most natural 



194 MENTAL HEALING. 

cure would seem to be the removal from mind of 
the thought of hatred, anger, fear, terror, or any men- 
tal discord which generated the wrong physical action 
from which the disease emanated. Experience proves 
that when this is accomplished the disease immediately 
begins to decrease, and eventually disappears. 

Fear is a painful mental emotion. 

Anger is a passionate mental discord. 

Disease is a conscious morbid distress. 

Mind is a necessary factor in emotion, passion or 
consciousness; therefore, fear, anger and disease 
can not originate apart from mind or without 
mental action of any kind or degree. 

Disease may originate without conscious recog- 
nition of its accompanying mental action ; but if mind 
be entirely absent it does not even begin to develop. 
If there is no thought, there can be no disease. 

The body will reproduce, in physical action, every 
active impulse of the thought indulged by the mind 
that rules that body. This is the fundamental law 
under which the individual relation between mind and 
body exists. Recognition of the law gives power to 
act under it for a perfect control of circumstances. 



XII. 

THE INFLUENCE OF FEAR IN 
SICKNESS. 



CHAFTER XII. 

THE INFLUENCE OF FEAR IN SICKNESS. 
Discordant Emotion and Its Results. 

Most persons know instinctively that it is best not 
to be afraid, but comparatively few are aware that fear 
actually results in physical disease. Yet this fact has 
been repeatedly proved in metaphysical practice in 
cases where the removal of the mental image producing 
some overpowering degree of fear was followed by 
permanent relief from a physical ailment which had 
been pronounced incurable. 

This subject is worthy of patient examination by 
all thinkers. Although of vital importance, it is com- 
monly set aside with the remark: "Yes, I know that 
fear sometimes makes sick people worse, because they 
are already nervous and imaginative; and it is always 
well not to be afraid. But I am neither imaginative 
nor hysterical ; my sickness is a real physical disease, 
and fear has nothing to do with it. I am not afraid of 
anything, yet I am sick; consequently, the theory does 
not apply to my case or to any real sickness. It can 
apply only to persons of weak minds and doubtful 

197 



198 FEAR IN SICKNESS. 

intelligence, who simply imagine themselves sick." 
These and similar remarks are heard constantly by 
all mental healers. They are honestly made, and to 
the speakers seem conclusive. The opinions thus 
expressed indicate that the term fear as used with 
reference to sickness, as well as the character and scope 
of its action, together with the nature and origin of 
disease, are entirely misunderstood. 

Haste in drawing conclusions on this subject is 
the gravest mistake that can be made. The subject 
contains truths of great, even universal importance, 
while the principles involved lie at every door and bear 
directly upon each life, in almost every detail of experi- 
ence; and this because fear in some degree abounds 
everywhere, and every life is in some measure influ- 
enced by its destructive action. The only safety lies 
in knowing the nature and cause of its action, and in 
understanding how to avoid or how to counteract its 
baneful influence. 

Every sick person is either consciously or subcon- 
sciously under the influence of the mental image of 
some experience, which at the time of its occurrence 
generated discordant mental emotion of some kind — 
perhaps fear in some degree, either in his own mind 
or in that of some person from whom it was received 
through the reflection of the mental image. This is 
not always conscious fear. There are numerous activ- 
ities in mind of which we are not immediately con- 



DEGREES OF FEAR. 199 

scions, and many forms of fear that are not recognized 
as such — in fact, are not recognized at all save through 
the outward effect in corresponding physical agitation. 

Fear is a mental emotion, based upon lack of con- 
fidence or apprehension of injury or danger. It has 
many degrees, varying all the way from slight dis- 
satisfaction, down through grades of discontent and 
nnhappiness, doubt, apprehension, solicitude, anxiety, 
worry, dread, repulsion, loathing, hatred, anger, hor- 
ror, hopelessness, fright, terror, shock — perhaps fol- 
lowed by insensibility or total unconsciousness on the 
physical plane, the ultimate of which is the state spoken 
of as death. This is an absence of consciousness. 

All these emotions are direct results of the varying 
degrees of fear. Each shares the general character- 
istics of the state known as being afraid of something; 
for the objective point of each similar state of mind is 
some thing, person, influence or action not desired, and 
hence feared in direct ratio to its undesirability. The 
existing mental state is frequently the result of thought 
applied to that subject with regard to its probable 
effect on the happiness of one's own life, or perhaps 
indirectly, on the happiness of another. It is an emo- 
tional state of mental disquiet, unrest, unease — that is, 
of dis-ease. It is wrongly called disease. 

A thought of disquiet will register as physical 
un-ease, and corresponding sensations will pulsate 
through the finest nerves. If severe or long-continued. 



200 ORGANIC DISEASE CURABLE. 

this condition of unrest or disquietude settles into 
nervous dis-ease and a Disease of the nerves becomes 
established. This disturbed condition of the circula- 
tion of nerve fluids is transferred to and correspond- 
ingly registered in the blood circulation, and diseases 
of the blood ensue. These register on the vital organs 
and through the various tissues of the body, producing, 
with different physical systems, every variety of dis- 
ease. The detail of each disease varies according to 
individual circumstances, but all bear direct relation 
to the corresponding degree of the mental emotion of 
fear by which they were generated. 

Some physicians deny these facts ; but those who 
have had large experience recognize that, in some 
inexplicable manner, fear does sometimes cause sick- 
ness. They usually argue, however, that when it has 
become established, the organic disease is an inde- 
pendent physical thing, and a material remedy must be 
administered in order to produce a cure. This conclu- 
sion is inconsistent with the premise, and illogical in 
view of demonstrated facts. Similar opinions prevail, 
because the universal laws through which mind con- 
trols the nervous system are not well understood. The 
fertile field of Mental Therapeutics has not been inves- 
tigated to any appreciable extent by these thinkers; 
therefore, a material remedy for the apparently phys- 
ical disease is considered a necessity. 

Mind acting on the superconscious plane of natural 



DESERTION OF THE BODY. 201 

activity builds its own body in healthy tissue and keeps 
it strong. But in acting subconsciously, through fear, 
each mind partially unbuilds its body by modes of 
action which correspond to the uncertain thought 
entertained. Such thought is destructive. 

When mind, through tear, loses self-control and 
becomes completely absorbed in the thought of destruc- 
tion, it literally deserts its body because of the fright 
occasioned by the mental picture of death by accident. 
This was entirely unnecessary, and if the thought- 
picture had not been formed it would not have 
occurred. If this picture had been changed or 
removed, there would have remained no incentive to 
the act. 

If the body be rendered a useless machine by injury. 
Mind, its active intelligence, deserts it; this is com- 
monly called death. The physician frequently attrib- 
utes this change to heart disease or "heart failure." 
The question, for an answer to which the people look 
to Science, is, Why did that heart fail at that particular 
time? Until the advocates of materia mcdica can 
answer this question intelligently, with a real remedy 
for unnecessary occurrences of the kind, their thera- 
peutics has no claim to be considered an exact science, 
and no moral right to exclusive practice. Metaphysics 
answers this question, with an application of principles 
which releases many a victim from hitherto unrecog- 
nized influences that were hastening him over the 



202 NATURE A HEALER. 

border, while medical science confidently prepared to 
sign the death warrant. 

Through knowledge, mind has control of its body, 
and may carry it safely through many of the occur- 
rences which would otherwise result in bringing life 
on the physical plane to an untimely end. 

In the practice of Metaphysical Healing this theory 
has been successfully applied in numbers of instances, 
all the evidence of which goes to prove that if the fear 
or mental unrest which originated the physical condi- 
tion be removed the mental action soon changes, its 
reflection in the nervous system disappears, and, as a 
natural consequence, nerve circulation is re-established. 
The Brain then becomes quiet, the pulse returns 
to the normal, the temperature is reduced, sometimes 
almost immediately, respiration becomes natural, sleep 
returns under the quieting influence of pure and rest- 
ful thought, digestion is improved and finally restored, 
whereupon perfect assimilation is followed by natural 
rebuilding of every part of the system. 

Superconscious mental action is the only recon- 
structive agency. Nature, which is Universal Mind in 
harmonious action on the superconscious plane, is 
always ready to begin natural restorative processes the 
instant that obstructions to her modes of action are 
removed. Nature's action is perpetual. 

Knowledge of metaphysical principles enables one 
to begin immediately the removal of mental obstruc- 



CORRESPONDENCE. 203 

tions, and aids in establishing mental quiet, cheerful- 
ness, courage and hope. With these conditions pres- 
ent, nature again assumes her sway and life renews 
the full vigor of the entire system. 

"When once entered upon, metaphysical diagnosti- 
cation for mental causes of nervous and physical dis- 
eases becomes an extremely interesting study. The 
investigation is most fascinating, not only because an 
insight is gained into the nature of these disturbances, 
but also because the intricate workings of the mental 
mechanism are so clearly defined through the imaging 
process of thought as to compel astonishment at the 
extent, rapidity, intensity and endurance of thought- 
activity, as well as at the infinite variety of results 
produced by its reflection. 

The immediate correspondence between the 
thought-picture and its physical copy in the nervous 
system is an exceedingly interesting and important 
feature of diagnostication. Its value is inestimable. 

The line of thought-activity which caused the sick- 
ness will be in some measure like the sickness itself ; 
i. c, in some one or more ways the same modes of 
action will exist in both the mental cause and the phys- 
ical effect — the same laws of activity will be mani- 
fested in each. This resemblance one to the other is 
always marked, and often exact in every particular. 
Frequently the mental action is very intense; then the 
physical agitation is severe and the accompanying 



204 MENTAL HEALING. 

sensations correspondingly acute in their appearance. 
Each mode of action appearing in any physical condi- 
tion accurately denotes a law involved in the mental 
act from which that condition proceeds. The degree 
of intensity is always modified somewhat, though 
never wholly changed, by the mental characteristics 
of the individual, and the impulse of his purpose. 

Every distinct feature of the bodily ailment is an 
exact copy of the mental image of some one or more 
features in a thought-picture existing in the mind of 
the sufferer, either from direct thought, conscious or 
subconscious, or reflected there from thought-activity 
generated in other minds. If this picture had not 
been formed in mind, or its reflection had not been 
absorbed, the sickness could not have occurred; if its 
action can be made to cease the sickness will 
disappear. With an adequate understanding of the prin- 
ciples involved in these facts it becomes possible to 
trace back directly from the physical symptom to 
the corresponding mental emotion which caused 
it. This once removed, the road to recovery is easy 
and certain. 

The natural steps in the development of this 
thought-process are as follows: 

(a) In conscious thought a mental picture is 
developed and formed into activity. 

(b) The mental picture is reflected, producing 
nervous action, which corresponds to the picture. 



COINCIDENCES. 205 

(c) That action is registered in and through the 
tissues of the physical body, thus reproducing itself. 

(d) A corresponding bodily condition, more or 
less permanent, is the inevitable result of the action. 

Many people have experienced fear, the remem- 
brance of which causes a chill to pass along the spine, 
a cold perspiration to start, or a shudder to vibrate 
through the system. Some people faint repeatedly for 
no other reason than the subconscious recurrence in 
mind of a past fearful experience. Others feel dizzy, 
and inclined to fall, for the same reason. It is com- 
mon to hear such expressions as "It makes me shudder 
to think of the danger," "I tremble at the remem- 
brance of that situation," "My heart sinks at the 
thought of how near death came to me," "My teeth 
chatter at the very sound," "I dream of a similar 
occurrence and awake in fright," and others of like 
eharacter. Such descriptions are common in all 
paths of human life. 

In many such cases the season of the year, the 
day of the month or week, or the particular hour of 
day or night at which an accident happened, act as a 
coincidence to call the picture into subconscious action. 
Thereupon the original fear returns and an attack of 
illness is experienced which is the immediate result of 
that disturbed nervous action, and bears direct corre- 
spondence to the particular picture formed at the 
moment of the accident. Nearly every acute disease 



206. THE MENTAL IMAGE AND NERVOUSNESS. 

of the body is generated in this manner through 
natural laws of corresponding mental action. 

All the earnest physicians of the civilized world 
are searching through every substance upon earth, in 
all possible combinations, for material remedies for 
these diseases. Think you such will be found? Not 
while the imaging faculty of mind continues to register 
and retain the features of scenes of fright. So long 
as mental imagery continues to be the law of mental 
action, the nervous system will persist in expressing a 
nervous copy of the mental impression, and the best of 
humanity — because the most sensitive and responsive 
— will continue to slip through the fingers of materia 
medica practitioners in spite of experience, skill and 
watchful care, together with consultations of learned 
men and concoction of remedies without number. 

This is not in any particular an overdrawn pic- 
ture or an exaggerated statement. It is the common 
experience of all civilized communities. Millions 
annually pass from this plane of life for no other 
reason than that the imaging faculty of the human 
mind and its natural effects are not understood, while 
other millions live but to suffer the torture of harass- 
ing thought-pictures generated either in physical 
accidents or in morally wrong lines of thought-action. 

A striking illustration of the effect of an impres- 
sion left upon the mind by a scene of terror is con- 
tained in an experience of the late Charles Dickens, 



CHARLES DICKENS' EXPERIENCE. 207 

an account of which is given in the concluding install- 
ment of an extremely interesting reminiscent series 
of six papers, entitled "My Father as I Recall Him," 
by Mamie Dickens.* 

In the number for April, 1893, Miss Dickens 
writes: "It was while on his way home . . . that 
he was in the railroad accident to which he alludes in 
a letter which I quoted in the last number of these 
reminiscences, saying that his heart had never been 
in good condition since that accident. It occurred 
on the ninth of June, a date which, five years later, 
was the day of his death." Then follows a letter 
written by himself, describing in detail the accident 
from which he escaped in a marvelous way : "I have 
— I don't know what to call it — constitutional (I sup- 
pose) presence of mind, and was not in the least 
fluttered at the time, but in writing these scanty 
words of recollection I feel the shake and am obliged 
to stop." Miss Dickens further explains : "We heard 
afterwards how helpful he had been at the time, 
ministering to the dying! How calmly and tenderly 
he cared for the suffering ones about him ! But he 
never entirely recovered from the shock." More than 
a year later the novelist wrote: 

"It is remarkable that my watch (a special chro- 
nometer) has never gone quite correctly since, and 
to this dav there sometimes comes over me, on a 



♦Published in "The Ladies' Home Journal," Philadelphia, Pa. 



208 DREAD UNCONTROLLABLE. 

railway train or atiy sort of conveyance, for a few 
seconds, a vague sense of dread that I have no power 
to check. It comes and passes, but I can not prevent 
its coming." This fact is especially suggestive. 

Miss Dickens adds: "I have often seen this dread 
come upon him; and on one occasion . . . my father 
suddenly clutched the arms of the railway-carriage 
seat while his face grew ashy pale and great drops of 
perspiration stood upon his forehead ; and though he 
tried to master the dread, it was so strong that 
he had to leave the train at the next station. The 
accident had left its impression upon the memory, 
and it was destined never to be effaced. The hours 
spent upon railroads were thereafter often hours of 
pain to him. I realized this often while traveling with 
him, and no amount of assurance could dispel the 
feeling." The personal mind is powerless in such 
cases. The subconscious picture prevails. 

In this account it is clearly evident that this 
accident was considered the cause of his nervous 
trepidation and of the suffering which no one could 
then relieve. The knowledge came too late. 

To quote again from the same paper, in regard 
to his last hours : "He made an earnest effort to 
struggle against the seizure which was fast comjng 
over him, and continued to talk, but incoherently 
and very indistinctly. It being now evident that 
he was in a serious condition, my aunt begged him 



THE ULTIMATE ACTION OF FEAR. 209 

to go to his room. . . . 'Come and lie down/ 
she entreated. 'Yes, on the ground/ he answered, 
indistinctly. These were the last words that he 
uttered as he sank to the floor. On the following 
day . . . with a shudder, a deep sigh, and a large 
tear rolling down his cheek, his spirit left us — the 
evening of the ninth." How significant this date ! 

To those who understand the natural effect of 
mental pictures of distress, every feature of the last 
scene in Mr. Dickens's life corresponds clearly to the 
mental experience of that accidental occurrence. 

The entire scene was retained in his mind as a 
picture. As the anniversary approached this picture 
became intensely active — perhaps he had been con- 
sciously thinking over the scene. Reaching the abso- 
lute degree of realization, it was reflected in his ner- 
vous system in imitation of the scene. The first feature 
of the picture was the fright which occurred at the 
moment of the accident. This was clearly expressed 
in his sudden attack of illness. The next feature was 
the mental shock from horror at the devastation and 
destruction of human life, with the picture of people 
dying while lying upon the ground, and whom he 
was helpless to save. This was clearly expressed in 
his last words, given in response to the request to lie 
down. "Yes. on the ground," although he was then 
in the house. At the last moment the self-centering 
of the ultimate realization of death scenes in the acci- 



210 THE REMEDY. 

dent is so clearly expressed in the shudder of horror, 
the sigh of hopelessness, and the large tear of sym- 
pathy, that there is little doubt that his soul 
passed from this life during and because of subcon- 
scious realization to the ultimate degree, of the scene 
of the accident, from which realization he could not 
then escape. Now, however, the cause can be removed. 

This is the scientific ground upon which meta- 
physical healing stands, and the field of action in 
which to-day a nobler work is being performed for 
the human race than has ever before been exhibited 
to the world. Its beneficent power is not limited to 
the healing of bodily ailments, neither will its action 
cease when the last physical cure is effected. The 
principles of life involved in metaphysical healing 
extend to every moral action, and cover the entire 
diapason of active life in the mind, soul and spirit of 
the human individual. Its importance, therefore, can 
not be overestimated. It is universal and applies to 
all cases. Its action is entirely scientific. 

The remedy for every inharmonious state 
is found in a reversal of the action which 
produced it. This fact should be remembered. 

Incorrect thought develops wrong action, which 
must inevitably come to an end. Correct thought 
establishes right activity, which will endure forever 
in harmonious life on the spiritual plane of real being. 



XIII. 
ILLUSTRATIVE CASES. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

ILLUSTRATIVE CASES. 
Cures That Have Been Effected. 

A few cases have been selected from among 
hundreds that have occurred in practice, to illustrate 
the kind of thought-action in which disease generates. 
All rest upon the same fundamental laws of mental 
activity, varying only in individual circumstances. 

The evidence accumulated by experience with 
such cases proves beyond question that the mind 
images every conscious Idea, and that those ideas 
which relate to self-existence are re-enacted in the 
physical system. 

Case of A. — This man, about thirty-five years of 
age. suffered from a dull pain in one leg above the 
ankle, described as feeling like a broken bone. At 
times the spot was inflamed and swollen, with increased 
pain. A marked feature of the case was that 
on starting suddenly to catch a street car or a train, 
the sensation would instantly change from dull to 
acute pain, with such intensity as frequently to compel 
p. The pain could not be at once ignored. 

Inquiry revealed the following facts: About 

213 



214 THE EXPERIENCE. 

twelve years previous to this examination, he was 
standing on the platform of a railway station while 
a passenger train was pulling out. When the train 
was well under way, a man came hastily from the 
waiting-room and attempted to get on board. He 
fell, and a wheel took one leg off above the ankle. 
"A" was the first to reach, the sufferer and render 
assistance. Later he assisted at the amputation. 

There were especially distressing features con- 
nected with the scene; but it was subsequently 
forgotten, and had not been consciously recalled for 
several years. Although not consciously remem- 
bered, this scene remained active subconsciously, and 
caused the suffering previously described. 

Physical treatment had no remedial effect. Yet 
when the sudden fright caused by seeing another in 
danger was erased from his mind, immediate relief 
followed; and within a few weeks every sign of the 
trouble disappeared. Nine years have elapsed, with 
no return of the symptoms. 

This case fairly illustrates the kind of mental 
action which causes disease. At the time of the 
accident the observer, while too far away to render 
precautionary assistance, was yet within ready view 
of every movement. Recognizing the danger, every 
mental emotion was at once called into intense activ- 
ity, and a mental photograph embodying every 
detail of the scene was instantaneously impressed 



RETAINING A PICTURE. 215 

upon the mind, exactly as in the act of material 
photography. Both operations are under the same law. 

This Picture remained clearly delineated in the 
substance of Mind, being always present though not 
continuously recognized, similarly, perhaps, as' a 
picture remains on the photographer's plate, though 
it be for months out of sight and remembrance. So 
complete a coincidence as running for a car instan- 
taneously called the entire picture into intense activ- 
ity ; and acute pain, reflecting from the keen sense 
of danger subconsciously imagined as present, at 
once throbbed through the nerves of the part which 
was the subject of injury in the original picture. At 
times sufficient agitation of tissue developed to result 
in inflammation. Conscious memory is not a necessary 
factor in this line of causative mental action. 

Through a process of conscious thought, based 
upon correct understanding of the laws of existence, 
metaphysical treatment causes such needless action to 
cease. When this is accomplished fear vanishes, and 
the subconscious illusion of continually living in a 
previous scene, with the accompanying false idea of 
danger, disappears. Thereupon its reflection in the 
physical tissue fades, and, with sufficient time for the 
process, nature restores the usual health. 

This is a Metaphysical Cure. It is strictly scientific 
in character, because, with exact knowledge in 
rogard to both cause and efifect, it strikes directly 



216 THE CUE TO THE PICTURE. 

at the root of the trouble and cures at once, knowing 
what is to be done, how it is done, and why it should 
be done. Other methods are attempts to cure by 
influencing the imagination through some form of 
emotion, through faith in some outside power to 
do the work, or through a blind belief in the 
efficacy of a drug, which arouses some degree 
of imagination in the direction of a cure, while 
nature does the work. All such are Faith Cures. 

While some recover under all methods of treatment, 
owing partly to nature's tremendous recuperative 
powers, others succumb to the constantly active and 
unperceived influence of the original mental picture 
of distress. Still others pass away because unable to 
withstand the injurious influence of a foreign element 
introduced into the physical system as a remedy for a 
mental condition which is forever beyond the reach 
of anything more material than thought itself. 

Case of B. — This was a young woman whose con- 
dition had been diagnosticated as Bronchial Con- 
sumption. It did not yield to medical treatment. The 
patient was weak and nervous, with little endurance, a 
severe cough, bronchial and catarrhal inflammation 
with throat complications, and extreme sensitiveness 
to moisture in the atmosphere. When questioned, 
she explained that she coughed because of a feeling as 
though there were sand in the windpipe. She was 
attacked by frequent severe bronchial colds. The 



CONTINUED EXPECTATION. 217 

patient, her friends and her physician were completely 
discouraged, and the case seemed hopeless. 

It was learned that a few weeks before the first 
cold which led up to the described condition, she was 
drowned to the extent of unconsciousness while surf- 
bathing. There were mental complications requiring 
continued treatment for a while, but this drowning 
was the original and the principal cause. The sub- 
conscious idea that she was continually re-enacting 
that scene of danger was removed through the usual 
metaphysical treatment of the mind, by thought. 

Speedy relief followed, and in a few weeks 
the symptoms disappeared. Within three months 
her usual health was fully restored. Seven years 
have elapsed since the treatment, giving sufficient 
time to test the permanence of the cure. The diseased 
condition did not reappear. 

This woman, naturally strong and ambitious, was 
rapidly passing beyond the line of physical endurance 
because of the influence of a mental picture of expected 
death from a past experience, in which no physical 
danger any longer existed. The trouble was not the 
continuation of a physical injury, but continuance 
of the mental impression of death which was formed 
during the accident, with its definite picture of water 
and sand as the means of destruction. In other words, 
it was not death, but the Thought of death — a false 
Idea which was constantly at work underneath, repro- 



218 THE IDEA OF DANGER. 

during itself in the physical tissue, undermining 
health, and rapidly leading to the ultimate of its 
disturbing action. She was powerless to overcome it. 

Drowning scenes produce every variety of disease 
of the respiratory organs, because the idea of danger 
is centered there, through fear of injury by inhaling a 
destructive element. This thought continuing in sub- 
conscious action becomes the cause of repeated attacks 
of nervous agitation. The only adequate curative 
influence is such as will remove the mental impression 
of danger and its consequent fear. To exercise such 
an influence is declared by many who are considered 
the world's greatest thinkers to be beyond human 
capability. Nevertheless, its exercise is an established 
fact of daily occurrence, and may be performed with 
some degree of success by any rightly informed 
individual. Knowledge is the only requirement. 

The necessity for some means of assistance for 
the mentally afflicted is suggested in the dialogue 
between Macbeth and his wife's physician : 

Macb. "How does your patient, doctor?" 

Doct. "Not so sick, my lord, 

As she is troubled with thick-coming 

fancies, 
That keep her from her rest." 

Macb. "Cure her of that. 

Canst thou not minister to a mind 
diseas'd? 



A PRACTICAL MIND AFFLICTED. 219 

Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow, 
Raze out the written troubles of the 

brain, 
And with some sweet, oblivious anti- 
dote 
Cleanse the stufFd bosom of that peril- 
ous grief 
Which weighs upon the heart?" 
Doct. "Therein the patient 

Must minister unto himself." 
Macb. "Throw physic to the dogs: I'll none of it." 
Xow, however, the victim of morbid fancies may 
be "ministered unto" in his otherwise hopeless 
affliction. It is successfully accomplished every day. 

Case of C. — A man of forty-five years, hearty and 
strong, not in the least given to vain imaginings, but 
on the contrary decidedly practical in nature and 
material in his tendencies, complained of muscular 
rheumatism in the arms and back. The first attack 
came with a severe influenza cold, supposed to have 
been contracted by exposure in wet weather. 

It was learned that shortly before the first attack, 
and during a cold storm, he — as an officer of the law, 
on duty in a public building — was attacked by a 
ruffian who had previously threatened his life, and 
was at that time creating a disturbance evidently with 
the purpose of carrying out the threat. The officer 
received a blow on the back from a heavy object, but 



220 GENERAL FEAR AND SHOCK. 

succeeded in holding his ground and quelling the dis- 
turbance. The attack of influenza soon followed, 
leaving him with the painful feeling named 
muscular rheumatism, in various parts of the anatomy. 

The causative mental action in this case was 
established in the following manner: During the 
moments of intense excitement, while injury was 
anticipated in a general way only, a mental picture 
of general fear of harm, perhaps worse, was formed 
without definite expectation as to the results. 

This feature of the mental agitation caused 
the influenza symptoms, which are a general 
inflammation of the mucous membrane and 
agitation of the entire system, with the aching 
that accompanies either the idea of severe muscular 
strain or the effect of repeated physical blows. 

The fear which at first was only general, 
finally centered in one spot by means of the 
blow, which instantly concentrated all thought 
of injury at the point of impact. This 
final feature of the mental action caused the 
rheumatic pain in the back, which extended somewhat 
to other parts from the idea of a necessity for muscular 
exertion as a means of protection. All muscles that 
would naturally be called upon for protection under 
such circumstances shared the effects of the 
agitation established in the mind of the victim. 

The scene described was metaphysically treated 



A CASE OF ABSENT TREATMENT. 221 

without his knowledge that it was to be done, the 
request having been made by a member of his family 
and the treatment given in his absence, while the 
patient was, by material reckoning, nearly a thousand 
miles from the operator. Only the operator knew 
when the treatment was applied, neither did any one 
with the patient know certainly that the case was to be 
treated, no definite promise having been made. 

These facts exclude all possibility of any conscious 
act of imagination or of faith, on his own part or 
on the part of any one present with him, to determine 
the change in his condition. They also preclude the 
possibilitv of magnetic or electrical influence of a 
physical character between the personality of the 
operator and that of the subject. Yet, soon after the 
treatment was applied in Xew York, the pain disap- 
peared from the body of the patient in a Western 
State, and the disease which was said to have been 
generated by exposure to cold and wet weather, van- 
ished before a Thought-Activity. No other possible 
reason save chance alone will intelligently account for 
this change. It had no other cause. 

If this were an isolated case the question 
of chance might be entertained ; but, in fact, it is only 
one among hundreds, differing in details, yet repre- 
senting the same laws of mental action, and yielding 
to the same rules of application of the universal prin- 
ciples of human life. Then chance is eliminated. 



222 MENTAL HEALING. 

The writer holds voluntary letters from this 
patient acknowledging a complete cure, without 
apparent reason and with no personal knowledge 
that he was to be treated. Six years have now (1893) 
elapsed since the above treatment, and there has never 
been the slightest return of the trouble. Facts are 
stranger than fiction. In these lines they produce 
almost overwhelming evidence of the existence of a 
genuine healing power. All the action involved is 
lawful and natural. The laws are definite in nature 
and their results are accurate in expression. Correct 
understanding of the laws discloses their usefulness. 



XIV. 
CURES THAT HAVE BEEN EFFECTED 



CHAPTER XIV. 

CURES THAT HAVE BEEN EFFECTED. 
(Continued.) 

Various Effects of Fright. 

Case of D. — In 1886 this patient applied for mental 
treatment. He was then about forty years of age, and 
suffered with what appeared to be B right's disease of 
the kidneys, which was pronounced by physicians to be 
well advanced. He was weak and pale, and lacked 
nervous vitality. Headache, and severe pain in the 
lower part of the back were distinct features of the 
case. He had constantly declined under medical treat- 
ment, and was much discouraged at the time he 
decided to try metaphysical treatment. All the 
appearances were against recovery by any means 
whatever. 

A runaway accident that had occurred before the 
appearance of the first symptom, was the cause of his 
trouble. The principal features of the picture he had 
retained of the accident were as follows: While driv- 
ing down a long hill, something broke in such a way 
as to throw him upon his back on the front of the 
wagon. In fact, he nearly went under the horse's 
heels. lie was unable to hold the horse or, indeed, to 

225 



226 PR01RACTED FEAR. 

do anything but keep himself from sliding off. The 
horse ran at will, kicking at nearly every leap. For a 
time he had no hope of escaping death, but finally 
extricated himself and escaped unharmed except by 
the severe fright and its nervous results. 

The mental picture formed during that period of 
terror continued subconsciously in action and the 
scene was continually re-enacted in the ganglionic ner- 
vous system, constantly generating disturbed action in 
the entire physical structure. If during the runaway 
he could have extricated himself sufficiently to regain 
control of his muscular system, he could have held the 
horse and danger would have been avoided. When 
he found this impossible, there was pictured in mind 
a lack of muscular power, developing the idea of Mus- 
cular Insufficiency. Later this idea was outwardly 
expressed in that physical condition known as 
"Muscular Degeneration," and centered in the kidneys, 
because of circumstances rendering those vital organs 
intensely responsive at the time of the fright. When 
the picture of his own expected death by violent means 
was erased from his mind the ailment yielded and he 
rapidly recovered. He was carefully watched for 
several years, but remained hearty and well with no 
sign of a return of the previous symptoms. 

In cases of this order, both the intensity of mental 
action and its subtilety in developing physical corre- 
spondences are almost incomprehensible. Knowledge 



INTEMPERANCE. 227 

acquired by careful study of these modes of action is 
rare and priceless. It contains life-saving qualities. 

Case of E. — A gentleman of education, refinement 
and social advantages had become intemperate in the 
use of alcohol. He had repeatedly declared that he 
would never again yield to temptation, and it was 
evident that he made every effort to break off the 
habit, but without permanent success. In this state of 
mind he came to the writer for possible help, faithless, 
but despairing of other aid, therefore willing to try this. 

Tracing back in the history of the case, the follow- 
ing facts were disclosed : He yielded to temptation, 
each time, after struggling with an attack of extreme 
nervousness which increased until he felt he could 
bear it no longer. Then he would drink, which tem- 
porarily quieted the agitation of the nervous system. 
When the nervousness reappeared, repeated drinks 
were resorted to until the nervous attack subsided. 

It was learned that the nervous symptoms appeared 
before the taste for liquor; and that the family physi- 
cian gave him whiskey for relief, having no real 
remedy for the trouble. The alcohol and other 
ingredients in the whiskey, by poisoning the finer 
nerves, deadened the sensibilities for a time, thus 
affording temporary relief. In this manner the patient 
had learned to take a drink, instead of sending for the 
doctor who would resort to the same means 
when called. Thus the habit was acquired and grew. 



228 A MENTAL CAUSE. 

Metaphysical philosophy shows that in all cases of 
this kind there exists a corresponding degree of mental 
agitation which is the direct cause of the nervous 
disturbance. Seeking for such a cause in this case, it 
was learned that before the first nervous attack the 
patient had been in a burning house surrounded by 
flames and, as it seemed, hopelessly cut off from 
escape. Death in a most horrible form seemed inevit- 
able. He was rescued unharmed, though terribly 
frightened. Several spasms followed this fright; 
these grew less severe as time went on, until they were 
finally replaced by frequent and severe attacks of 
nervous agitation, which only yielded to stimulants. 

This experience was the original cause of his ner- 
vous attacks, and the habit was the outcome of the 
nervousness. In order to cure the habit the patient 
had to be relieved of the nervous condition. To re- 
lieve the nervousness, the mental agitation which 
caused it must be removed. To remove the mental 
agitation, the Mental Picture, which reacted upon the 
nervous system because of the persistence of 
the original thought of danger, must be rendered 
inoperative. This was done by treatment. 

The cure was accomplished in the case described 
by a process of thought which obliterated the distress- 
ing agitation of the existing mental picture of death by 
flames — a danger which no longer existed. When this 
false idea was removed, its effect, the corresponding 



A NATURAL CURE. 229 

mental agitation, ceased. With the disappearance of 
the mental agitation, the nervousness also ceased, as 
no existing cause remained to perpetuate its action. 
When the nervousness failed to reappear an appetite 
for something to quiet nervousness no longer existed 
— a human soul was freed from bondage and the man 
was cured ! Years have passed with no return of the 
nervousness or of the desire for alcohol. 

Many cases of inebriety arise from similar causes, 
varying greatly in detail but not in principle of action. 
Under the influence of these subconscious Mental 
Pictures, men are as powerless to cure themselves as 
though afflicted with neuralgia or rheumatism. Those 
who desire to discontinue the intemperate habit — pro- 
vided they will co-operate with the metaphysician in 
such ways as may be necessary to understand the facts 
in the case — can readily be cured by metaphysical 
treatment. Numbers of cures prove this fact. 

The Opium habit is frequently formed in the same 
way, and it is successfully treated by mental methods. 
Opium, instead of alcohol, is the medium employed to 
deaden sensibilities, but the reason for its use is the 
same, and the means of cure alike in both cases. 
Through its power to annihilate the disturbing mental 
picture which causes the nervous agitation, meta- 
physical healing is an adequate means of destroying 
both intemperance and the opium habit. To drug the 
human svstem into insensibility because the nervous 



230 A PROTRACTED CASE. 

system is unfortunately under a pressure of mental 
agitation, is unscientific and worse than useless. To 
erase from mind the agitating cause, in a harmless way, 
and thus put nature again in control, is a method of 
procedure entirely reasonable and strictly scientific. 

There are numberless ways in which Mind, acting 
through rapid and intense thought under the manifold 
influences of fear, reacts upon the millions of nerves 
in the physical system to produce disease ; and a mental 
action rightly established in an opposite direction will 
inevitably result in a cure. 

Case of F. — This was a capable and energetic 
business man about forty-five years of age, troubled 
during a perioal of about thirty years with frequent, 
sudden and severe attacks of dysentery, and a constant 
tendency to inflammation of the bowels. When a lad 
he had suffered from repeated attacks of inflammation 
of the bowels, of a critical character. Later in life 
this derangement assumed the form of dysentery, 
accompanied by extreme nervousness, with intense 
excitement of the entire mental, nervous and physical 
mechanisms. The suffering was extreme. 

Before the first appearance of inflammation of the 
bowels, and when about 16 years of age, while skating 
on a river and far from any refuge or assistance, he 
was attacked and followed by a pack of ferocious dogs, 
compelling him to strain every nerve to the last degree 
of both speed and endurance. He escaped from them, 



HASTE CAUSED DYSENTERY. 23] 

but shortly thereafter was attacked by the illness that 
quite as nearly threatened to terminate his life. 

The only cause of his frequent attacks of dysen- 
tery, through the period of thirty years, was that scene 
of terror, continually repeated in subconscious mental 
action, and reflected in a constant impulse to hurry. 
This impulse was expressed in every mental act of his 
life, and re-enacted in every nerve-throb of organic 
action. But for the fact that he possessed a naturally 
strong constitution, both mentally and physically, he 
must have succumbed to these attacks. In that event, 
the real cause of death, though unrecognized, would 
hare been the original fright. Metaphysical treat- 
ment removed that element of fear from the aggregate 
mental action of his life's experience, and the physical 
system was relieved of its predisposing tendency to 
haste, and of the resulting indigestion in all its stages 
which had so often culminated in dysentery. Then 
the attacks ceased, and the system w T as gradually 
restored to healthy activity. 

This man, with perfect confidence, had thoroughly 
tried even- means known to medical practice, but 
experienced no permanent relief. Drugs only further 
taxed his nervous system without removing the cause 
of his trouble. The cause was mental, therefore only 
a metaphysical process could reach it effectively. 
Others no doubt are in similar conditions because of 
the existence of like causes. Every such sufferer 



232 ACUTE CAUSES AND THEIR RESULTS. 

can readily be cured by a similar process of thought- 
action. Multitudes of tests have been made that prove 
the truth of this statement. 

Many cases have come under the writer's notice 
where severe strain — mental, nervous and physical, 
under the influence of intense fear while in the act 
of flight from a source of danger — has so interfered 
with digestion and assimilation as to produce all 
degrees of mal-assimilation, indigestion, dyspepsia, 
diarrhoea, dysentery, inflammation of the bowels and 
even consumption of the bowels, which is the ultimate 
of all these lines of disturbed action. 

The books of the medical schools give no informa- 
tion with regard to either the discovery or the removal 
of such causes of disease; therefore medical education 
does not enable one to perform a scientific cure in 
such cases. The mind is disordered and must be 
restored. 

Case of G. — Running in a state of intense mental 
excitement to a fire in plain sight, but at considerable 
distance, where the lives of loved ones were in danger, 
caused one of the most severe cases of chronic inflam- 
mation of the bowels ever recorded. This case, after 
many years' duration and several months of "heroic" 
medical treatment was pronounced hopeless by several 
medical men of high rank, acting in consultation. Yet 
it was cured, years ago, by metaphysical treatment. 

Case of H. — An especially severe case of insomnia : 



CHILLS AND FEVER. 233 

complicated with nervous dyspepsia, was caused by 
fright developed during the running away of a pair 
of horses which the man was driving. They ended 
by going over an embankment, with a complete smash- 
up, in which he expected to be killed. In fact, 
he stated that for the moment he thought he had 
been killed. Such thought is not uncommon. 

This case was readily cured by metaphysical 
treatment. These symptoms have different mental 
causes in other cases., but all result from distorted 
mental emotion, and the majority of them develop 
from some picture of fear w T hich forms a mental 
image of injury or of death as the result of an 
accidental occurrence. 

Case of I. — Eight years ago this patient, twenty- 
five years of age, applied for relief from an aggravated 
form of chills and fever. With full confidence in its 
power, medical treatment had been thoroughly tried, 
but had failed to cure. The patient was utterly faith- 
less as regards the efficacy of mental influence in such 
a case, and frankly stated that he did not expect any 
benefit — he came only because urged by friends, and 
would remain only a sufficient time to prove that his 
case could not be reached by mental treatment. The 
chills were most violent, rendering him perfectly help- 
less for days at a time. lie was employed at clerical 
work in a building located within a supposed malarious 
district. This was considered the reason for his 



234 MIND CURES MALARIA. 

serious condition. He had been drugged accordingly. 

Inquiry elicited the information that before this 
illness began he, with others, was sailing on Long 
Island Sound, several miles from land, when the boat 
ran on a rock which was just under water at ebb-tide. 
A storm was gathering and the waves ran high. 
There was no standing-place out of the boat, and 
there seemed to be no escape from drowning. After 
working for a long time in great fear, the boat was 
dislodged in a leaking condition and a landing for 
repairs was eventually made on an island. Here the 
patient had his first chill, and the attack was extremely 
violent. This attack was followed by others, similar 
in character, until he appeared for metaphysical treat- 
ment. This consisted in erasing the mental picture 
of death formed in his mind because of the appar- 
ently certain coming of that event. When this mental 
change Avas accomplished, the chills ceased immedi- 
ately and entirely. The case was cured in a few 
weeks and, although he continued to live and work in 
the same so-called "malarious district," he had no 
recurrence of malarious symptoms. 

If his disease was physical and the result of a 
physical cause, why did it vanish when only a mental 
change was made? This question has received no 
satisfactory answer through material reasoning, and 
it cannot be explained from any physical standpoint. 
The fact, however, stands out in bold relief, and can 



FEAR IN THE COMMUNITY. 235 

not any longer be safely ignored by thinking persons. 

This case, also, has been duplicated in many 
instances where some overpowering degree of fear was 
discovered to have preceded the first chill, and where 
all symptoms vanished when the picture of death or 
injury was erased from mind. Mental treatment 
properly applied is universally successful with similar 
cases. Scepticism as regards its efficacy can exist only 
because of ignorance of these facts. 

Mental action in some form of fear underlies every 
case of chills — usually the picture of death by some 
dreaded means is involved in the active cause. A 
general idea of danger of death, as a result of some 
particular condition supposed to be present in a cer- 
tain locality, may subconsciously spread from mind to 
mind through a community, by simple reflection of the 
mental picture of the Idea, causing an epidemic of 
"malaria," or other corresponding physical disease, to 
prevail. Remove that Idea from the general mind 
of that community, by any means whatever, and the 
prevalent disease will vanish, even though the material 
conditions of the locality remain unchanged. This 
has been proved repeatedly in numerous localities. It 
is susceptible of proof in any locality at any time. 
Scepticism with regard to the theory will neither save 
those unfortunates who are subjected to such dele- 
terious mental influences, nor prevent those who gain 
understanding of the laws of mental action, from 



236 MENTAL HEALING. 

reaping the reward in restored or continued health. 

Publishers of newspapers, in their zeal to circulate 
what they are pleased to call news, are in many 
instances directly responsible for the spread of epi- 
demics, by suggesting a special Image in the minds 
of their community. Speaking figuratively, it is 
equally possible for them to reverse the engine and 
thereby help to produce the opposite result. When 
this truth is recognized, a grave responsibility will be 
seen to rest upon those intrusted with constant access 
to the minds of a community. 

Every thought has its accompanying Image, which 
in form, quality and character corresponds to the Idea 
entertained. While reading, persons form thought- 
pictures of the ideas about which they read. These 
frequently become temporarily the dominant ideas of 
life for each reader. The picture of the dominant 
idea in mind multiplies in its reflections, extending 
to all receptive minds in a community. The trend of 
thought which prevails will show at least a coloring 
from that idea, usually very marked. 

Every thought, repeatedly indulged, leads event- 
ually to corresponding actions in life's experience. 
Thought and action are inseparable. 

The most powerful leader is he who places the 
highest and purest ideas before the thinkers of his 
community. Pure ideals perpetuate pure thoughts, 
inevitably resulting in right actions. 



XV. 



MUSCULAR AND INFLAMMATORY 
CONDITIONS. 



CHAPTER XV. 

MUSCULAR AND INFLAMMATORY 
CONDITIONS. 

Heart Disease, Fevers and Colds. 

The power of intelligence, as expressed in a 
process of thought working through the imaging 
faculty of mind to produce a corresponding physical 
condition, occupies a field of action so wide as to be 
almost incomprehensible : so deep in its sounding of 
human nature, and so weighty in its iDearing upon 
the affairs of life as frequently to surprise even the 
clearest thinkers — those most familiar with philosoph- 
ical study. The reason for this is that the imaging 
processes have not been sufficiently recognized. 

Common minds usually content themselves with 
a flat denial that any such power exists, without 
having taken the trouble to investigate. Scepticism, 
however, does not bring the question of the nature 
and cause of disease any nearer solution ; neither does 
it in any respect dispose of the demonstrations con 
timially being made — demonstrations which would be 
impossible if the mental imagery of an idea, and the 
physical reflection of its ima^e, were not real prin- 

239 



240 ACCIDENTS AND RHEUMATISM. 

ciples of human life, in some important measure intel- 
ligently understood by their demonstrators. 

As has been said, there are many particular ways in 
which the imaging faculty of mind is exercised 
through thought to cause disease in its manifold forms. 
Numbers of cases of muscular rheumatism have been 
traced directly to, and found to correspond exactly 
with, the mental pictures of accidents — falls, runaways, 
and railway or steamboat disasters. 

The reason for this correspondence is that, at the 
moment of the occurrence, anticipation of physical 
injury prompts the mind to instantly place some or all 
of the muscles of the body under tension, more or less 
rigid, according to the intensity of the fear. This 
nearly universal impulse denotes a subconscious belief 
that muscular tension will tend to protect from injury. 
On the contrary, however, when the physical body 
is rigid under muscular tension at the moment 
of concussion, the injury is greater than if all 
muscles are relaxed, and in a natural state 
of flexibility. This fact is common knowledge. 

The success of acrobats and tumblers in falling 
without injury depends upon knowledge of the safety 
in relaxed muscles during such movements. The 
seemingly miraculous fact that infants or young chil- 
dren sometimes fall great distances and strike upon 
dangerous places, suffering little or no injury, is, per- 
haps, attributable to the circumstance that, not realiz- 



MUSCULAR TENSION. 241 

ing danger, they are unconscious of fear, and the 
muscles are left free from tension at the moment of 
concussion. This always conduces to safety. 

Under rigid tension during fear, the body becomes 
more compact and inelastic, falls rapidly and strikes 
like a stone, thus rendering fracture almost certain. 
Under natural, fearless consciousness, the muscles 
remain flexible, and the body more expanded, in which 
condition it falls somewhat slower, striking more as 
would a soft substance, and thus receives less injury 
because offering less resistance. 

This is one reason — -possibly the only one — why 
intoxicated persons frequently undergo falls and 
similar accidents, with less injury than others usually 
receive under similar circumstances; being in some 
degree unconscious of danger, muscular tension is 
not fully established. 

In the majority of accidents, physical injury pro- 
ceeds from, and corresponds to, the state of resistance 
existing at the moment of concussion between the 
objects in collision. Reduce this resistance in any way 
and liability to injury will be proportionately lessened. 
The resistance of the human body will be either 
reduced or increased to some extent by the mental 
state indulged at the time, whether it be conscious or 
subconscious. The mind exerts a powerful influence. 

Muscular tension, established at the time of an 
accident, frequently is subconsciously renewed from 



242 MIND AND MUSCLE. 

time to time during a series of years, and some form 
of muscular or allied disease is almost certain to follow 
such continuance. In that event the disease has its 
origin in the muscular tension, which in turn results 
directly from the fear of injury. Remove from mind 
the continued subconscious remembrance of this fear, 
and, with sufficient time for restoration of natural 
activity in the molecular construction, relaxation of 
the tense muscles must inevitably ensue. Every 
muscle of the body is equally subject to this line of 
action, both in causing and in curing disease. 

Remember that the muscles are not separate things 
in themselves, capable of independent physical action, 
but that they all are under absolute control of the 
thinking mind, which uses them as responsive instru- 
ments for either delicate or forcible action. The 
muscles do not command and the mind obey, but 
vice versa. The body is always the instrument of 
the mind. 

Extend an arm. Now analyze this act: Did 
the arm physically extend itself, and then call upon 
you to observe its position ? Did the muscles originate 
the intention and force the other tissues of the arm to 
reach forth, afterwards announcing to you their 
sovereign act of will? Or did you first mentally plan 
to extend your arm and then oblige the muscles 
to obey, by concentrating thought upon the act? 

Why does the arm remain in its rigid position? 



VOLITION. 243 

Because the mental action which caused it to stretch 
forth still continues. Close a finger on the palm of 
the hand ; did not the mental intent precede the 
physical act? Cease the mental intent and the fixed 
tension of the muscles vanishes ; repeat the intent and 
the tension recurs, at the will of the mind. 

The marvelous rapidity of thought-action is an 
important feature which frequently leads to the 
erroneous conclusion that some muscular movements 
are involuntary, occurring only because of physical 
impulse. The mind is overlooked in the matter. 

When any act is analyzed in all its phases, 
however, the necessity for both previous conscious 
intent and decisive act of the higher will, either con- 
scious or otherwise, becomes apparent. 

There is voluntary muscular action in response to 
mental volition, subconscious, conscious and super- 
conscious, through every degree of power — violent, 
strong, weak, feeble and faint, down to the almost 
imperceptible ; but no involuntary, or purely muscular, 
action can ever take place. When mind wholly deserts 
the body the muscles entirely cease to move. 

The physical body is an inanimate machine : 
Mind is its active center, and mental action its 
only volition. Matter itself is void of intelligence, 
and cannot act. Mind contains its only impulse. 

Numerous cases of nervous prostration, resulting 
from surgical operations and the effects of ether, have 



244 FALLS AND CONGESTION. 

been entirely cured in short periods of time by remov- 
ing the mental impressions of those scenes, and the 
accompanying Idea of danger to the personality. 

One particularly trying case, successfully treated, 
was that of a highly intelligent and capable young 
woman who had nervous prostration which culminated 
in acute melancholia. This disease progressed beyond 
the control of the family physician, who intended plac- 
ing her in a public institution. The case was entirely 
cured, five years ago, by removing impressions of try- 
ing scenes connected with the death of dear ones. 
This person is now filling a public position of responsi- 
bility, and is in perfect health. 

Several especially severe cases of congestion, with 
pain at the base of the brain, have been permanently 
cured by removing the impression of fear produced 
by falls. In one instance the fall was backwards 
downstairs. In another it was backwards over a 
balustrade. Again, the fall was from a wagon which 
started without warning. In another instance, the 
person fell from a tree, striking on the back of the 
head and neck. 

All of these cases resulted in forms of Basilar 
Congestion, because of the impression instantaneously 
photographed in mind of a critical danger located 
somewhere behind which, though unseen, was antici- 
pated to the ultimate degree and realized as coming 
death. The inaction present in cases of congestion 



EXCITEMENT AND INFLAMMATION. 245 

is a perfect physical picture of the idea of death. 

Under such circumstances, as just described, an 
instantaneous demand — with more or less hopeless- 
ness, however — is made upon the Will for assistance; 
and the mental impression of fear is registered phys- 
ically at the base of the brain and in the principal nerve- 
center of the spinal column, because that part of the 
nervous system corresponds most directly with the 
mental faculty of Will, responding immediately to its 
impulses, and that part of the body is in danger. 

The details of the accompanying symptoms will 
vary somewhat with each case, because of the particular 
circumstances of the accident ; but the principal results 
are alike in their chief points. 

Inflammation in all stages, from simple heat and 
irritation, to ulceration — which is the ultimate action 
of inflammation — has been traced with exactness to 
scenes of passion, excitement, fear or terror, where 
the imaging of heat, fire, flames, burning and consum- 
ing through inflammation, was the principal mental 
action involved, resulting either from accidents or 
from moral distortion of thought. 

When properly understood and intelligently traced, 
this theory applies to both external and internal heat 
and inflammation — of blood, muscles, nerves and 
organic structure ; in neuralgia, rheumatism and 
fevers; in eruptive, ulcerative and suppurative dis- 
eases, and organic disturbances of all parts of the 



246 MENTAL FIRES AND PHYSICAL ERUPTIONS. 

physical system. Distorted action is possible with all. 
The correspondencies are frequently so evident 
as to astonish one not familiar with this line of 
activity. The action is perfectly natural, however, and 
is at once intelligible, when it is understood that 
the character of a mental image of a thought may 
be reproduced in the physical reflection of that 
thought. Fear reacts in heat, developing inflam- 
mation, which eventually results in ulceration and 
suppuration, frequently in serious forms. 

Serious cases of Eczema have been traced directly 
to scenes of fire, especially to great disasters — so-called 
"holocausts" — where the mental picture was formed 
from an idea of the blistering, scorching and burning 
of human flesh. In the physical reflection each case 
exhibits the exact details of the particular picture 
formed in mind at the time of the occurrence. One 
picture will differ from another in minor points, but 
the general image is that of destruction from heat, or 
water and heat combined; and its physical copy will 
exhibit the same action, frequently reproducing the 
mental picture in the physical structure, even to the 
most minute detail of exact representation. 

Some cases of this kind, the most hopeless on 
record, have been cured by removing mental impres- 
sions of horror arising from sympathy. The indi- 
vidual mind unaided is usually powerless to free itself 
from such a load of distorted emotion; with meta- 



FRIGHT AND INFLUENZA. 247 

physical assistance, however, it finally ceases to repeat 
the original action ; then the physical copy fades 
and eventually disappears from the body. Correct 
application of metaphysical principles will cure every 
similar case, and in natural ways. 

Even to a novice, influenzas and colds frequently 
reveal the clearest possible correspondence with some 
recent mental excitement, varying in degree from 
simple anxiety down through the gamut of fear and 
fright to nervous shock. 

The most common physical reflection of the 
mental emotion of fear, without reference to 
a definite picture of what was feared, is that 
which is commonly called a cold. This troublesome 
form of disease is inflammation of the mucous mem- 
brane, usually attended in some measure with con- 
striction of the pores of the skin, thus shutting in the 
surplus heat that otherwise would escape. It is a state 
of feverish uneasiness, inflammatory in character, with 
every evidence of the element of fire or heat, instead 
of its absence — cold, in the system. The inflamma- 
tion begins with molecular disturbance in the mucous 
membrane. This disturbance develops from nervous 
atomic vibrations, which in turn reflect from mental 
agitation in some degree of fear, or from mental 
emotion, as previously explained. 

When suddenly frightened, or subjected to severe 
mental strain through sickness or death of friends, 



248 FEARS AND COLDS. 

any person is likely to develop a cold, which will be 
either catarrhal, bronchial or pulmonary, or an influ- 
enza in some form, according to temperament and 
individual circumstances. 

The particular form of the cold in evidence 
is determined, not necessarily by what actually 
transpired, but rather by the particular mental picture 
which that mind forms of the occurrence, or of the 
features of anticipated danger. 

In their first stages, many colds are influenzas, 
developing later into other forms. Such colds are 
invariably the effect of mental agitation established at 
the time either vi an accident or of some other disturb- 
ing experience. These causes usually pass unrecog- 
nized, and the condition is nearly always attributed 
to some physical agency; but careful tracing, without 
prejudice, will bring to light a mental cause in every 
well-marked case. The correspondencies are usually 
distinct and easy to trace by careful thinking. 

The mental cause of a seeming cold may date back 
many years in the life of the patient, and may repeat 
its action from time to time, resulting in periodical 
colds or other attacks, perhaps at particular dates or 
seasons, or under certain corresponding circumstances 
which act as mental coincidences to re-establish the 
previous disturbed action. 

These conditions always yield to right mental 
influence, and readily disappear under metaphysical 



GRIEF AND HEART DISEASE. 249 

treatment. Large numbers of reliable witnesses 
testify to this fact, and it is being repeatedly 
proved in the true metaphysical practice. 

Various forms of heart disease result from mental 
agitation attendant upon the death of relatives or 
friends. Grief and heart disease go hand in hand. 
The heart is the gauge of the emotions, and intense 
feeling registers there in direct proportion to the 
mental disturbance; the ultimate is instantaneous 
cessation of action of the heart, bringing this life- 
period to an end. 

Cases are not uncommon in which a person, upon 
coming into the presence of the lifeless body of an 
especially dear friend, has fallen, and instantly passed 
away. Such changes are manifestly the outcome of 
mental emotion. Cessation of life is the result of 
nervous shock, which, in turn, is due to the mental 
image of death, self-centered at that moment in abso- 
lute degree. The mind thus causes the condition. 

Acting under the influence of the mental 
picture of death, the Mind deserts its body. This 
manner of death is usually announced as the result of 
"heart disease." In many cases such a conclusion is 
little better than mere conjecture. It explains nothing. 

In those cases where a diseased physical condition 
was present it was the result of previous mental 
emotion in such lines of agitation as bear relation to 
the nature of the heart, and register there because of 



250 THE MIND AND THE HEART. 

that relationship. This previous disturbance left the 
individual with a mental picture which established a 
predisposition to excitement from similar mental 
influence ; the result — sudden death — was all the more 
probable because of that mental reason. 

While materia medica has no remedy for such a 
mental state, and medical science can only surmise the 
cause of illness, previous to the autopsy, metaphysical 
healing goes to the root of the matter at once by dis- 
covering and removing the original predisposing 
mental disturbance which has been constantly weaken- 
ing the heart's action and generating disease in its 
tissues, thus rendering the system negative. 

This restores all of the organs and functions to 
their normal condition, after which, predisposition to 
attacks of "heart failure" disappears, and the Indi- 
vidual, if called upon to go through an ordeal, will 
have sufficient natural strength to undergo the trial 
without disaster to the nervous system. 

When mind thinks, each vital organ responds in 
a corresponding degree of activity, regardless of con- 
scious recognition of the fact by the individual. On 
both the subconscious and the superconscious planes 
of mental action, the heart is under absolute control 
of mind through thought-action; it instantly responds 
to and accurately registers mental emotion in the 
direction of either death or life. 

The thought of death means departure from life 



CONTINUOUS LIFE. 251 

on this particular plane of existence. The thought of 
life, fully realized in mind, means healthy, living 
activity for that individual on all planes of existence. 

The real man of spiritual essence, the intelligent 
individual having actual being, is life eternal — a living 
entity of indestructible reality. Nothing can harm him. 

Xo deathly element could originally have mingled 
with the real ingredients of his constitution, because 
living activity — Life — is the only absolute reality in 
the universe, and with life once realized no different 
reality remained to be acquired. 

If death had entered before realization of 
life took place, then life would have been of no avail, 
for death already held the portal. 

Life and death can never occupy together. 
Life cannot die ; Death cannot live. That which 
does not live can never act. Life is a deathless reality; 

death but a lifeless illusion. 

Man never dies — he only changes his field of 
conscious action, or enters on another plane of life's 
experience. His consciousness is continuous. 

Traveling around the circumference of the wheel 
of active being, he perhaps inadvertently slips 
back on one of its spokes, returning to 
the center from which he sprang; then, gather- 
ing fresh impetus, he again springs forward, 
once more to realize the outermost action of the 
circumference through individual experience. 



252 PERIODS OF SEPARATENESS. 

Thus his life progresses in numerous periods of 
the seeming separateness of life, with an end to each 
interval ; but the wheel goes perpetually onward 
in the harmonious activity of eternal life, and 
man travels with the wheel, having no conscious choice 
in the matter. The impulse of Eternal Life is irre- 
sistible. The principles of being are continuous in 
their activity; the laws which express them are per- 
petually in operation; and the life of the human 
individual is a true manifestation of the laws them- 
selves. Thus his life is both real and endless. In 
this he expresses the whole. 



XVI. 

THE COMMON GROUND OF 
HEALING METHODS. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE COMMON GROUND OF HEALING 
METHODS. 

Why Do Conflicting Theories Heal? 

If the theory that a mental picture is the cause of 
sickness be true, why is it that those who pay no con- 
scious attention to these pictures, even in mental 
practice, but believe quite differently with regard to 
the nature and cause of disease, also produce cures? 

This important point should be lucidly explained. 
All evidence established during accurate examination 
of the subject, invariably goes to support the theory 
that the Imaging faculty of mind is involved in every 
cause and in every cure of disease, regardless of the 
external means employed. 

In the first place, every case of disease yet brought 
forward for examination in metaphysical practice, has 
exhibited well-established mental impressions, or pic- 
tures in mind, that bear direct correspondence to the 
disease, in character, quality and form. 

In the second place, many people have thoroughly 
tried all other methods of cure, including those of the 
various mental schools, without permanent help. Yet, 

255 



256 A COMMON LAW OF ACTIVITY. 

on the discovery and removal of corresponding 
pictures from the mind, they have recovered, some- 
times almost immediately, and always permanently. 

Many schools of practice exist in all parts of the 
world, varying in theory from extremely material 
views to the highest spiritual ideas. Each of these 
schools produces cures. All cannot be entirely correct 
in theory unless the life and being of man is a most 
discordant mixture, with no sure foundation — illog- 
ical, inconsistent and unreal. Neither philosophy nor 
science points to such a conclusion. 

The fact that all schools produce cures, suggests 
that there may be a common Law of Activity, capable 
of being called into action without full consciousness 
of the process, w T hich action, if established, will result 
in a cure regardless of the means employed. If so, 
that law is discoverable, and when fully comprehended 
will prove universal in application. 

Some people recover while taking medicine; and 
the cure seems to have been effected by a direct action 
of the medicine itself. This usually adds strength to 
the opinion that the disease was an actual physical 
thing, and that the medicine prescribed was the par- 
ticular ingredient which Nature intended as a remedy 
for that disease. This opinion is frequently enter- 
tained regardless of the fact that the list of remedies 
named by the schools as Nature's real curative sub- 
stances is changed every two or three decades — in fact, 



CONFLICTING THEORIES. 257 

is constantly changing with all recognized schools. 

While one person takes medicine and recovers, 
another, equally sick in the same way, turns to the 
Faith Cure, and recovers without any physical applica- 
tion of the so-called nature's remedy. Another prays 
by himself, without the aid of a special organization : 
he also recovers with no other sensible means than his 
own effort to attract the attention of a healing power. 
Others perform some ceremonious act; wear an 
amulet, or carry a souvenir — perhaps a horse-chestnut 
in the pocket, or a bean, or a stone. All of these 
methods produce cures to prove their efficiency. No 
one, however, explains these results satisfactorily to 
those who are inclined to think and to investigate for 
the sake of knowledge. Why is it possible to obtain 
approximately the same result through widely 
different means ? Much misunderstanding exists here. 

While some are cured by faith, others go unre- 
lieved in spite of the same agency. This, also, may 
truly be asserted of Medicine in all of its schools and 
branches. Why is it that all schools heal some cases, 
while none of them succeed with all curable cases of 
any given malady? Something seems lacking here. 

The following tenets of theory are believed to be 
indisputable under any circumstances: 

1. If there be but one true theory with regard to 
the cause and development of disease, then there can 
be but one. fundamentally true principle of cure. 



258 MENTAL HEALING. 

2. If there exists only one true way to heal the 
sick, then all methods differing from that one must be 
developed from false theories through mistaken ideas. 

3. A false theory contains no power for the direct 
healing of disease, because falsity is devoid of prin- 
ciple, and without principle there can be no law, con- 
sequently no power for action. 

4. If the real cause of disease is many-sided, so 
that sickness comes through channels bearing no direct 
relation to one another, then no single line of action 
and no one means of cure can reasonably be expected 
to apply in all cases. In that event no school, confin- 
ing its efforts to one principle of cure, has exclusive 
right to the treatment of disease. 

5. Disease may be many in its particulars, yet only 
one in its nature; in which case the true Theory of 
cause as well as of cure must be the same for all forms 
of sickness; each separate kind being a part only of 
the one nature, and each particular application a mode 
of employing the one healing power. The facts under- 
lying these tenets may be concentrated as follows : 

If there be one fundamental Character to all dis- 
ease, there also must be one fundamental Cause, of 
which local causes are only branches. In that event, 
one theory of cure will be the foundation of all true 
curative influence. 

Examine, for a moment, the facts in the various 
methods of treatment and their common results : 



ONE COMMON ELEMENT. 259 

Under analysis, the different schools of practice 
resolve into two common classes : On the one hand, 
those holding that disease is physical, and of the body 
only, and following a theory of herb, drag or chemical 
medication; and on the other, those believing disease 
to be a condition of the mind and susceptible of mental 
cure. There are branches to each of these schools 
which deviate from the pure theories and somewhat 
confuse methods, but the main idea of each school with 
regard to the nature, cause and cure of sickness is 
adhered to by each branch. It is indisputable that 
both these schools perform cures in all their branches ; 
therefore, curative action is not confined to any one 
school, method or means. The vital question is, How 
is the cure performed ? Is it physical in one case and 
mental in the other? If so, then both mind and matter 
have independent power for action. Is there any com- 
mon ground on which advocates of both these theories 
can meet, examine facts, and prove that both produce 
results through the same laws? 

When rightly studied, one common element is 
found in every form of disease, namely : Discordant 
Action. Without this no disease can develop. It 
seems certain, therefore, that there must exist one line 
of activity for all causes of disease — a line which cor- 
n-ponds to the discordant action involved. This must 
be either physical or mental ; it can not be both, and 
still be only one activity. No activity can operate on 



260 A MENTAL FACTOR IN ALL CASES. 

other than its own plane ; therefore, both the cause and 
cure of any disease must be of the same order. 

Are all such cures physical ? Emphatically no ! 
Those wrought in the various mental schools are 
mainly with cases where no physical remedies were 
employed. To state that because the patient recovered 
without medicines, it is proved there was nothing the 
matter, is to confess complete ignorance of mental 
action and its established facts. In the physician's 
case, it frequently means refuting his own diagnosis — 
sometimes a diagnosis based upon consultation with 
eminent authorities. 

Are all of these cures performed mentally ? At first 
thought this also seems impossible, for in many cases 
medicines were administered under medical treatment 
and the patients recovered, sometimes promptly. 

During impartial examination of the subject, one 
important fact always appears : While in many cases 
treated mentally no physical means were employed, 
and there was no material agency to which the cure 
could possibly be attributed, yet in every case treated 
physically, the factors of mind and mental action were 
undeniably present in some important degree. The 
physician had hope, and confidence in his own ability. 
The patient also had hope and probably considerable 
confidence, with growing expectation which finally 
reached the point of mental realization of a cure — a 
most potent factor. Others, perhaps, took part in this 



A STRONG FAITH. 261 

superconscious mental action, thus contributing to the 
aggregate of courage, confidence, hope and realization 
of recovery, and strengthening resistence. 

In all ages and among all classes of people 
instances have been recorded where a mother 
has held out against the most decided assurance of the 
physician that her child was sick unto death, and that 
no human power could save its life ; and by sheer force 
of mental determination she has held its little life 
above and safe from the mental danger which then 
overshadowed it because of false beliefs with regard 
to the supposed fatal powers of disease. Every such 
victory demonstrates beyond question that a power 
rests in mind which can overthrow disease and con- 
quer death, even on the plane of determined will — by 
no means the most powerful plane of mental action. 
Why should not mankind have the full benefit of 
knowledge pertaining to that power? In all similar 
cases, the body is controlled by mind, each mind 
assisting the other, perhaps not consciously, but with 
effective results. If no one, either present or absent, 
has any hope, confidence or realization of life and 
health, and if no correct mental action be established 
on any of the three planes of consciousness, material 
science proves of no avail. Its rules of action have no 
power against such absence of mentality. 

With the larger number of cases treated success- 
fully by mental methods, a physical means of cure is out 



262 THE LaW OF CURE. 

of the queston and mental activity is the only factor 
involved; while in medical treatment there invariably 
is mental action as well as physical means, and both 
appear as possible factors in the cure, until each is 
adequately examined. Observation proves this. 

It is a well-known fact that where no mental action 
is involved, medicine does not operate. No physician 
would attempt to medicate a lifeless body. Life must 
be present, with mind active in some degree, on some 
one of the three planes of consciousness, or no effect 
can be produced by medicine. Without life there is no 
action, without consciousness there is no life, and 
without mind there is no consciousness on this plane 
of living action. 

When these facts are carefully weighed, it seems 
reasonable to suppose that the mental plane of action, 
which is invariably involved in every case of either 
a cause or a cure, may be the plane on which the 
curative act is alzvays performed. If this be so it fol- 
lows that in all methods, excepting the purely mental, 
which relies upon no other means, the cure must have 
been effected through a mental action established 
without conscious recognition. 

This we claim is the underlying fact of all methods 
of cure — Medical, Chemical and Electrical — by Water, 
Rest, Travel, Change, Massage, Color, Music, Prayer, 
Faith or Superstition. With each a mental factor is 
subconsciously involved in the operation, and if for 



MENTAL REALIZATION. 263 

any reason that action is not established, there is no 
cure in that case. Opinion has no weight, here. 

The faith- healer of the Church will not attempt a 
cure unless the patient on his own account has faith 
that the Supreme Being is about to perform a special 
act for his good. This is distinctly a mental act of 
realization of a cure. The competent physician is 
reluctant, and may even refuse, to treat a patient who 
doubts his ability, or lacks sufficient confidence to 
establish what is really a mental realization of a cure 
in his own case ; thus, perhaps unconsciously, demand- 
ing faith as imperatively as does the faith-curist. If 
the disease be purely physical, and the medicines are 
the true remedies, possessing independent power for 
direct action on the disease itself, regardless of mental 
action, why should any degree of faith or confidence 
be necessary or even an important factor? 

In every case of this kind the patient is thrown 
upon his own responsibility to cure himself. The 
external means operate advantageously only because 
they serve as a medium to arouse the required amount 
of confidence. Both mental and physical schools fail 
with many cases where cures would be effected if the 
real laws involved in both cause and cure were suf- 
ficiently understood by their practitioners. 

The teachers of all schools of mental healing train 
students in the application of thought to a given pur- 
pose, along lines which result in a change of the domi- 



264 TRANSFERRED FAITH. 

nant idea, and the change is from that which generates 
a picture of discord to such as will inevitably result in 
harmony and health. This mental change may be 
effected by the thought of another, regardless of con- 
scious thought on the part of the patient; in which 
event a cure is effected not only independent of his 
faith in it, but even against extreme incredulity. This 
fact has repeatedly been proved in the cases of persons 
who, through avowed scepticism, refused treatment, 
yet were treated and permanently cured without their 
own knowledge or consent; also in the cases of chil- 
dren and others, not responsible for their own deci- 
sions, and with the demented, who could not be 
reasoned with about their condition. These facts are 
now of daily occurrence. 

Mental pictures capable of causing disease may be 
formed by any wrong process of thought. The moral 
plane of action contains important factors of this sort. 
Recognizing this, some advocates of mental healing 
erroneously attribute all sickness to direct sinful act. 

Any thought that forms a picture not in accordance 
with the real laws of life, becomes the cause of some 
degree of sickness which will come to the surface in 
due time. Immoral thoughts, as surely as accidental 
happenings, form erroneous pictures, which establish 
discordant modes of action. In either event, the most 
effectual application of principle through thought, is 
such as will enable the operator to discover the par- 



MENTAL IMAGERY. 265 

ticular picture formed in that mind, and to change the 
mental action to a better mode, by placing higher 
objects before the understanding. This not only cures 
the disease, but brings about the needful reform. 
This result can be accomplished only through the 
imaging faculty of mind, and with universal success, 
only through the highest act of imagination — the 
imaging of real ideas. 

If those mental healers, of any school, who sup- 
pose that they produce results independent of mental 
pictures, will closely examine their method of proced- 
ure in applying mental treatment, it will become 
apparent that the process of thought which comprises 
treatment, whether it be a continued train or an instan- 
taneous flash of thought-activity, operates through the 
imagination, in mental imagery, and produces the 
desired result only by changing action in the patient's 
mind, thereby removing a picture of disturbing nature 
and substituting one that is harmonious in character. 

The activities of mind are so subtile that these 
pictures frequently are changed subconsciously, with- 
out either part}' concerned being aware of it. 

While some thought-activities are slow in their 
procedure, others result in an instantaneous change of 
the mental picture. Without a mental picture there 
can be no thinking process, and without a change of 
mental picture there can be no change of thought. 
Therefore, if no mental picture be either removed or 



266 A SPECIFIC CAUSE. 

replaced, no cure will be effected. There can be no 
deviation from this universal law of mental action in 
the life of individuals. It should be well observed. 

Some people are ill because pictures of wrong 
thoughts have been harbored until false action has 
become temporarily established. With each such case 
any process of thought, whether instantaneous or con- 
tinued, sufficient to eradicate that wrong mental action 
and establish a right mode instead, will cure that case. 
In the case of others, the sickness is caused by par- 
ticular mental pictures of injury, of death, or some 
form of fear not necessarily associated with immoral 
actions. These cases can be cured permanently only 
by erasing the particular pictures which caused the 
special symptoms. All other attempts fail. 

Treating solely along moral lines, on the theory 
that only sin causes sickness, will never efface a pic- 
ture of fright; and, although treatment applied on 
general principles might act to modify mental action 
and thereby render temporary relief, still there is a 
feature of chance in the attempt, and the ultimate 
result is decidedly uncertain. But the process of 
erasing the particular picture of discord, whether it 
be generated by immorality in sinful thought, by 
fright, or by the two combined, must invariably result 
in a permanent cure — and this regardless of direct 
faith or expectation on the part of either patient or 
operator. Through such application of principles 



PLANES OF ACTION. 26? 

every curable case may be reached understandingly, 
leaving nothing either to chance or subconscious 
influence. This principle of cure is vitally important 
to all and should be considered here. 

Neither the range of thought nor the scope of 
power is in any way limited by giving attention to 
the special cause. In reality, both are thereby 
extended ; because, by understanding the laws involved 
in every mode of mental action, direct thought can be 
applied to all kinds of cases throughout the entire 
range of mental and spiritual activities. Thus the 
metaphysician is prepared to deal intelligently with 
every vicissitude of life. 

The deepest principles of Divine Reality are out- 
wardly expressed in the living activities of the intel- 
ligence of man. These activities are consciously 
exercised, and can be intelligently studied only through 
the imaging faculty which, on its various planes of 
action, enables man to come in contact with all things 
real. On the lowest and most outward plane of life 
the imaging faculty enables one to recognize forms 
and objects of sense. On the next higher and more 
inward plane, through the use of the same faculty, 
the living soul recognizes laws of action and their 
accompanying results. On the highest plane. Divine 
Intelligence shining through the spiritual nature of 
the individual, illumines every faculty, making pos- 
sible the recognition of principles through pure itnag- 



868 MENTAL HEALING. 

ing of real ideas. Perfect exercise of the imaging 
faculty, therefore, will develop the best modes of action 
in every stage of progress, and eventually lead to the 
highest conceptions possible to the human mind, cul- 
minating in purest spiritual perceptions of fundamental 
truths. This is an attainment possible for every intel- 
ligent individual. The value of the means leading to 
so high an end cannot be overestimated. 

Knowledge of the universe is within the grasp of 
every one who learns to properly exercise this wonder- 
ful faculty, for within human comprehension there 
exists no limit to its action. 

One who ignores universal law thereby limits his 
powers and subconsciously confines his efforts within 
narrow bounds ; while he who recognizes the law, and 
conforms to it in every instance, searching for and 
obliterating the harmful picture in each case, succeeds 
with all classes. The scientific application of curative 
mental influence lies entirely in this direction. 

The Principles of Being are involved in every 
moral question, and are expressed in all the laws of 
active life. These laws are the instruments which 
must be employed in conscious thought to produce 
right results. When thoroughly understood, all laws 
of life are recognized in the unity of the one Prin- 
ciple of Being. Wholeness is the principle and the 
law of all reality, and one law applies in justice to all. 

In Eternal Principle all things are whole and pure. 



XVII. 

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE 
MOVEMENT. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE MOVEMENT. 

The necessarily limited scope of this work will not 
admit of extended consideration of the subject of 
Metaphysical Healing through all its interesting and 
instructive phases. Enough, perhaps, has been said 
to explain the general ground of the philosophy that 
is involved, and to illustrate the practical appli- 
cation of metaphysical principles to the healing of 
disease — which is all that has been attempted. 

This work is not intended as an argumentative 
treatise, or as a technical work to teach the system of 
thought suggested in its pages ; but rather it is a neces- 
sarily limited presentation of a subject of great 
depth, containing knowledge of which humanity is 
in urgent need, in every path of life. 

The cases cited in the preceding chapters are 
not intended as proofs to those who have had no simi- 
lar experience, but simply as illustrations of the modes 
of action through which results are obtainable. Simi- 
lar illustrations of causes any intelligent individual 
may trace out for himself in the experiences of those 
around him. Numberless opportunities present them- 

271 



272 CLEAR TRACING OF CASES 

selves in every field of action and in all phases of life. 

Marked exemplifications of the fact that a given 
case of sickness was preceded by a mental dis- 
turbance closely resembling the abnormal physical 
condition, will frequently be met with in such investi- 
gations. Careful study of the subject will prove to 
each inquirer what the illustrations given here prove 
only to those who were interested in their development. 

These are by no means either the most remarkable 
correspondences between cause and effect, or the best 
results in healing that have been effected. Many who 
read these pages will recall cases of a more marked 
character which have been permanently cured. Those 
here presented have been selected with a view to a clear 
tracing, in lines which can easily be followed by those 
unfamiliar with the theory, and also as cases showing 
a single symptom resting upon a single cause, because 
such afford plainer examples of the working of 
the laws, in these intricate phases of action. 

Complicated cases which usually exhibit more 
wonderful phases of mental action have been excluded, 
because they are more difficult to understand. There 
are, however, a superabundance of such cases on 
record, and they clearly illustrate almost every phase of 
mental activity in its relationship to physical action. 
In every case of the kind thus far treated, the following 
facts have been conclusively established : 

1st. The particular mental picture, which by reflec- 



DORMANT IMAGES. 273 

tion produced the physical symptom, was not formed 
until its causative Image of fear or emotion entered 
the activity of that mind. The action proceeds as 
follows : 

(a) The Image of fear of personal harm, first 
formed in mind. The fright, itself. 

(b) The Picture of the exact details of the antici- 
pated injury. The mental operation. 

At this point the general Image and the special 
Picture merge into one form of mental activity, and, 
uniting in reflected physical action, they become 
the direct cause of the disease eventually generated 
by that action in the nervous system. 

2d. The disease did not appear until after the 
corresponding mental picture was definitely formed; 
sometimes not until years had elapsed. 

3d. The disturbance continued with more or less 
intensity until the image of fear was identified and its 
element of discord mentally removed. Then the dis- 
ease vanished and a permanent cure was established. 

The circumstances of life sometimes cause an image 
to lie dormant in mind, and its physical reflection to 
remain practically inactive for a time, but it is likely 
to be aroused at any moment by a predisposing circum- 
stance. The individual is never safe until this image 
has been removed. As soon as the image is erased 
the disease begins to yield, and it finally disappears 
altogether, with greater or less rapidity, according to 



274 FACTS AND LAWS. 

the individual circumstances of the case. Some con- 
ditions require hours, and some days, while other cases, 
equally curable, require weeks or months for natural 
mental action to become fully expressed in thoroughly 
rejuvenated physical tissue throughout the entire sys- 
tem. If the right mental action be established and 
continued, however, a natural healthy physical con- 
dition must eventually result. 

The facts of cure expressed in these cases are con- 
sidered as evidence of the existence of definite laws 
which, for the good of humanity, should be studied 
until they can be universally applied. It is idle to 
attempt to put them aside with the plea that "what 
has been, is good enough for us." The human family 
is overburdened with fear and disease. The former 
can not be dealt with medically; the latter assumec 
many hitherto incurable forms, because of which men 
live in terror and die in anguish. Is this right? 

The application of thought to a given case for a 
definite purpose, with intelligent understanding of 
certain laws of activity which underlie that particular 
case, has already been proved a power for good, with- 
out the possibility of harmful complications. Mental 
Healing, therefore, is a blessing to suffering humanity. 
For these reasons its advent is hailed with joy by those 
who wish to see humanity benefited, and every intel- 
ligent thinker who comes rightly into its understanding 
must in some measure recognize its importance. 



METAPHYSICAL KNOWLEDGE. 275 

The greater the intelligence, the more prompt and 
responsive the recognition of the principle. 

"Metaphysics" — The Science of the Real Life of 
Being — is already well established as the true philos- 
ophy of life, and is bound to gain ground even more 
rapidly as its principles become better known. Its 
healing efficiency will also increase in power and scope 
as knowledge of the application of thought to the 
manifold experiences of life becomes extended. 

'With time for suitable growth of the right under- 
standing, through extended research and universal 
demonstration, this metaphysical knowledge will raze 
from the field of human life that monstrous structure 
of error, called physical disease, with its thousands 
of terrifying names — all devised in the technical 
schools. 

Then may we calmly view the merry dance 
of joy held over the remains of the last school which 
teaches that man is mainly a chemical receptacle, and 
that the chief way to reach the inner recesses of his 
being with a remedy is through his stomach, while the 
only element that can "scientifically" give him health 
and extend the period of his life, is some vile ingre- 
dient possessing only deadly qualities. 

"Life" brought to man in the vessel of death 
frequently proves to be but the dregs from 
the cup of the unwelcome messenger. A deadly 
drug contains no life: the belief that it does is a 



276 IMPARTIAL INVESTIGATION. 

fatal delusion. Savant and Novice suffer alike. 

The facts of Metaphysical understanding do not 
rest upon statement alone; they can be intelligently 
examined by means of results which are of daily occur- 
rence, and are constantly increasing both in number 
and in scope, and any individual who enters upon the 
examination will find himself in a numerous and 
thoroughly respectable company. 

It is claimed that Metaphysical Healing is a right 
and reasonable means of relieving suffering humanity 
of its burden of medically incurable diseases, and it 
is hoped that the facts here presented may lead to 
careful individual investigation. Unprejudiced inquiry 
certainly will prove the justice of the claim. 

No one is expected to believe, simply because it is 
asserted, any statement which from his standpoint 
seems unreasonable; but each is asked to suspend 
judgment until opportunity is found for adequate 
examination of the subject, and then to examine 
impartially for his own sake and that of those dear to 
him. Under intelligent scrutiny, facts will be disclosed 
and truth realized for permanent good. 

The only Elixir for the perfect healing of 
the nations lies in a pure understanding and 
a right application of metaphysical principles, 
which belong to everybody and are free to all. 
They are never written upon a sheepskin; simply 
to understand is the only diploma required for either 



BOOKS AXD IGNORANCE. 277 

* 
authority or power. Nature's laws are impartial. 

Believing or disbelieving either what others say, 
or what at first thought seems right or wrong from 
one's own point of view, will not necessarily result in 
the acquirement of knowledge of real Truth. Only 
patient, painstaking examination of the subject, with- 
out fixed preconceived opinions on the Ideas to be 
dealt with, can reveal the actual facts. Through idle 
argument alone no one can be rightly convinced. 
Proofs rest within individual comprehension, and must 
be acquired at the fountain-head. 

In lines of action similar to those explained in the 
previous chapters, Discordant mental emotion under- 
lies every known disease. Though at first sight many 
of the modes are intricate, and difficult for the 
untrained mind to conceive, yet they are clearly 
explainable to intelligent observers. 

All the knowledge acquired from the books and 
professors of all the Medical Schools in the world 
leaves the student still ignorant of this vital patho- 
logical fact. The deepest learning and the greatest 
skill, derived from the experiences of a lifetime spent 
with the numerous sciences included in a medical edu- 
cation, leave their professor still helpless as an infant 
to deal with these mental causes of disease. Yet, 
every practicing physician is constantly surrounded 
with cases parallel to these, and every patient who 
appeals for aid is suffering from some picture of 



278 THE TRUE PLATFORM. 

distress, which would readily yield to mental influence, 
rightly applied to the real seat of the trouble. 

This explains the fact that so many cases classed 
as hopeless are found upon the list of every prominent 
medical practitioner. Such cases are readily cured by 
any one possessing sufficient knowledge of the laws 
involved in mental causes to obtain a correct mental 
diagnosis and to give adequate mental treatment based 
upon real metaphysical principles. Detailed knowl- 
edge of the physical body and of so-called physical 
disease is no more necessary to the effectual perform- 
ance of such a cure than detailed knowledge of brush- 
making is necessary to the portrait painter. 

The results already accomplished can no longer be 
denied while we retain the capacity for intelligent 
recognition of facts in the universe, neither can they 
be explained under the laws of the physical sciences; 
therefore they demand, and in time will receive due 
attention from scientific thinkers. The "metaphysical" 
then will be recognized as the true platform of the 
"physical," where all thinkers many stand, and think, 
and work in unison for the good of all, for the truth in 
all, and for the eternal right that inheres in every living 
atom of the boundless universe of reality. 

All the minds of living men combined do not yet 
know all that is taking place in the universe or on this 
earth — not even in a grain of sand, much less in the 
intricate affairs of a human life. 



ACTIVITY AND PROGRESS. 279 

Unyielding' prejudice is a millstone hanging about 
the neck of the modern materialist, and he is bound 
to go down with it unless he cuts loose through free 
investigation of facts. Truth can not 'be strangled, 
and facts will not remain underground. 

The one eternal fact of existence is the progres- 
sive action of real life, a perpetually revolving wheel 
of active law, at every turn of which fresh facts are 
brought to the surface, exposing to view principles of 
value to every individual. 

If we are withstanding the eternal advancement 
of universal law, we must expect, eventually, to be- 
come engulfed in the spiritual wave of vital progress 
which is now surging through the soul of intel- 
ligent man, cleansing his faculties of every obstructive 
influence and purifying every purpose. 

Life is activity and its action is maintained in prog- 
ress. He who fails to progress, soon ceases action, 
eventually crystallizes, and physically discontinues 
living. 

Definite Law is expressed in every real activity, 
and Principle underlies every law. Through reason- 
able analysis of ideas, based upon intelligent under- 
standing, both principle and law are accessible to every 
individual. He who seeks them with earnestness will 
be certain to find and may appropriate them. 

Intelligent understanding is a genuine faculty 
inherent in the spiritual nature of every human being 



280 

Through conscious thought, based upon correct 
understanding of first principles, any desirable 
right action may be established by any thinker. 

When such truth is called into activity by one 
mind, its unfolding harmonies spread unrestrained 
throughout the extent of universal mind. 

This will eventually lead millions into the 
field of intelligent understanding of principles, 
where every spring bubbles over with the health 
which sparkles in its depth, and every rill dances 
in the eternal joy of living action, the very nature 
of which is the absolute health that belongs with the 
wholeness of Reality. 

Man's chief inheritance is eternal life : Its per- 
petual activities are his inviolate possession; and 
because of them absolute as well as universal health is 
his birthright. Knowledge of Truth is the Golden Key. 

Consciousness of truth contains the greatest health- 
dealing potency known in life. Its activities are 
universal and eternal. The life of the real individual 
is a permanent manifestation of the eternal activities 
of consciousness, and contains the potency of perfect 
health — the wholeness of reality in being. 



This Book ?s next in succession to " Mental Healing " in Mr. Whipple's System of Thought. 



A Superb Book 

ABSORBINGLY INTERESTING 

Mind and Its Forces. 



By 

LEANDER EDMUND WHIPPLE, 



Handsomely bound in Cloth $5.00 
Leather and Gold, an Elegant Book, $5.00 

CONTENTS I 



chapter. INTRODUCTION. 

I. THE NATURE OF THE MIND. 
II. UNIVERSAL INTELLIGENCE. 

III. THE IMAGING FACULTY OF THE MIND. 

IV. THE IMAGINATION AND ITS USES. 

V. THE NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE 

MEMORY, 
VI. THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE. 
VII. PSYCHIC ACTION. 
VIII. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF DREAMS. 
IN. THE DUALITY OF THOUGHT. 
N. CONSCIOUSNESS AND MENTALITY. 
XI. SUBCONSCIOUS MENTALITY. 
NIL SUPERCONSCIOUS MENTALITY. 

XIII. CONSCIOUSNESS AND FORCE. 

XIV. CONCENTRATION. 
XV. INSPIRATION. 

XVI. IDEALITY AND ITS FORCES. 
XVII. SPIRITUAL ACTIVITY AND MENTAL 

POWER. 
XVIII. INDEPENDENT SUGGESTION AND SELF- 
CONTROL. 
NIX. THOUGHT-DISCIPLINE. 

No such virile and forceful treatment of these subjects 
has before appeared. The statements made have repeatedly 
been proved in mental work. 
Sent Postpaid by 

THE METAPHYSICAL PUBLISHING CO. 

New York, X. Y., U. S. A. 



T" E =o F METAPHYSICS 

LEANDER EDMUND WHIPPLE, Principal, 



OFFERS A SUPERIOR COURSE of Instruction in the 
Philosophy, Science and Practice of Metaphysical Healing, 
which includes all the facts and actual knowledge on the 
subject of Mental Healing, in all the varied phases of the 
movement, giving the student full and concise information, 
in ways that appeal to reason and intelligence. 

THE SYSTEM OF INSTRUCTION is based upon twenty 
3^ears of continuous study pursued through direct application 
of the mental forces in an extensive healing practice and in 
the personal teaching of many classes, thus doubly proving its 
efficiency. 

THE LESSONS have been carefully prepared in definite 
form and written in plain English, for the purpose of Corre- 
spondence Teaching — by which people in any part of the 
world can obtain this most important information by private 
study at their own homes. 

A PRACTICAL COURSE of seventeen lessons is given, with 
all necessary teaching by correspondence, and including the 
graduation certificate, for $25. In clubs at reduced rates. 
Other courses follow this one for further teaching, if required. 

OCCULT SCHOLARS and philosophical minds praise this 
system as the only complete and comprehensive system yet 
offered to the public. It has met with perfect success, and 
has received the highest appreciation wherever introduced. 
It is certain to be the system of the future in mental and 
metaphysical thought. 

IN NO OTHER WAY can so much valuable information 
on the healing subject be secured at any price. It is a sound 
foundation for all future occult reading and study. 

A FULL PROSPECTUS giving particulars will be mailed 
upon request. 

ADDRESS 

THE AMERICAN SCHOOL OF METAPHYSICS, 600 ^ H Y * V R E K NUE ' 



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